The country’s sugar shortage is not artificial, and stakeholders were consulted on the issuance of Sugar Order No. 4 which sought the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar, Philippine Sugar Millers Association, Inc. (PSMA) President Pablo Lobregat said.
Lobregat made the disclosure in a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on Tuesday, adding he did not believe sugar was being hoarded.
“I do not believe that this is artificial,” Lobregat told Senator Risa Hontiveros, who asked his opinion on the country’s sugar “fiasco.”
“I cannot say none. Maybe there might be some,” the sugar group head added of hoarding, explaining that stashing and smuggling the commodity are “symptoms” and not causes of a supply deficit.
In the same hearing, Blue Ribbon committee chairman Senator Francis Tolentino said the resigned officials of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) merely “presumed” the signals from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in allowing the 300,000-ton shipment under SO4.
Later, Mr. Marcos, as concurrent Agriculture Secretary and SRA board chairman, declared the sugar order illegal.
“You merely presumed…. the signs,” an unconvinced Tolentino told ex-SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica and Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, who signed SO4 as the President’s representative on the sugar board.
Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez, who Serafica and Sebastian said did not object to the sugar order along with Mr. Marcos, skipped the Blue Ribbon’s second hearing into the sugar importation controversy due to a Cabinet meeting in Malacañang.
Rodriguez was present in the first hearing where he testified that the issuance of SO 4 was not authorized by the President.
The plan to import around 150,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar will still be subject to review by the Chief Executive, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
In a press conference, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said Mr. Marcos has yet to receive a copy of the sugar import plan.
“He will review the [proposed sugar] order prior to signing,” Cruz-Angeles said.
Mr. Marcos, in his recent vlog, announced that the government is eyeing importing 150,000 MT of sugar if the country’s supply dwindles by October.
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito assailed the SRA for failing to respond to the country’s sugar crisis, saying the agency focuses more on importation instead of strengthening the local industry.
Ejercito said the SRA’s supposed efforts to implement the Sugarcane Industry Development Act were not felt by local sugar planters and refiners, then grilled Serafica for being unprepared after being asked on the status of the SIDA’s implementation.
Senator Robinhood “Robin” C. Padilla also raised a point on the seeming violation of the law in the appointment of some officials of SRA, as they did not go through the shortlist of the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GCG).
Padilla revealed this after GCG Chairman Alex Quiroz affirmed that the appointees were not yet included in a shortlist as mandated by Republic Act 10149.
“Under RA 10149, the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, Section 15 on the appointment of the board of directors and trustees of GOCCs indicates that an appointive director shall be appointed by the President from a shortlist prepared by the GCG. Now, the Blue Ribbon Committee is probing what happened to the SRA,” Padilla said.
During the hearing, Quiroz said he was informed that the appointees were appointed in an “acting capacity” and thus, “they have to await our supposed to be shortlist.”
Padilla also stressed that if the President does not see fit to appoint any of the nominees in the shortlist, “the President shall ask the GCG to submit additional nominees.”
Earlier, the Press Secretary said the government would continue to inspect warehouses to determine whether the shortage in the supply of sugar was contrived to cause a spike in prices.
Last week, Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said the shortage in the supply of sugar was artificial, noting there was a significant chance the price of sugar would go down if the supply illegally stored in warehouses was released to the market.
At the same hearing, Hontiveros also asked Lobregat to confirm if the SRA had consulted stakeholders before the issuance of SO 4.
“I remember that all the stakeholders were consulted before the issuance of that order. I do not remember exactly, or we do not know what the other consulted parties said but I remember, the PSMA did recommend 300,000 and I think I heard earlier that most stakeholders that were consulted more or less gave the same figure but not too far from there,” Lobregat said.
However, Roland dela Cruz of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) said they were not consulted on SO4.
“For the record, we were not involved. We were not part of the consultation process despite the fact that we represent the workers in the sugar industry as well as I also sit as a member of the stakeholders’ consultative assembly,” Dela Cruz said.
“But for the purposes of Sugar Order No. 4, we were not a part of the consultation process,” he added.
Serafica said the SRA had a meeting with stakeholders on July 29 when they presented the facts of the situation and the prevailing prices in the market, then asked the stakeholders to submit their recommendations.
From July 29 to August 3, Serafica told Hontiveros that stakeholders did not object to the plan to import sugar, and almost all had recommended importing 300,000 metric tons.
“The SRA, your honor, has complete data on the facts of our average demand for the last three crop years as far as raw sugar is concerned and as far as refined sugar is concerned. So, they realized, upon seeing all of these, that they recommended almost the same 300,000 metric tons,” Serafica said.
Hontiveros noted that only Delmax Trading disagreed with the proposal and recommended a slightly lesser amount of 250,000 metric tons.
On their recommendation to import 300,000 metric tons, Lobregat said they based it on the data the SRA provided.
Lobregat attributed the rising prices of sugar to the temporary restraining order released by a Negros Occidental court directing the SRA to stop its plan to import 200,000 metric tons of sugar that was meant to augment a projected shortfall and stabilize prices.
The 2022 national and local elections were also factors in the delay of action on the price increases in sugar.
“One of the causes of the prices going up was the delay caused by the TRO issued in Negros as what was supposed to come in March only came in practically in May. The other thing that happened was the elections caused paralysis in most government agencies until the new administration came online,” Lobregat said.
“All these delays added up and now they are still crafting the Sugar Order No. 2 I think for this year and this… has all caused these prices to remain high,” he added.
When there was a proposal to import 150,000 metric tons of sugar, or half of the proposed volume under SO4, Lobregat said he manifested during a meeting in Malacanang that “anything is better than nothing.”
However, he still thought the planned shipment would not suffice to achieve a P70 per kilo sugar price.
Lobregat said the PSMA has yet to recommend the planned importation of 150,000 metric tons of sugar.
On SO4, Sebastian said Mr. Marcos and Rodriguez appeared to support the order in their August 1 meeting.
“There were no objections to the importation program, Your Honor. I did not hear any objection or any reservation. I did not hear any objection, Your Honor, at that point,” he related.