SRA Chief: Proposed Import of 600K Metric Tons of Sugar Too Much

Aside from having no objections to sugar importation, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. also wanted to import twice the amount of sugar that was suggested by government officials according to a claim by a former sugar administrator.

This issue comes from Sugar Order No. 4 or SO4 which grants 300,000 metric tons of sugar to be imported into the Philippines to close the gap on a sugar shortage that pushes the price of sugar upwards.

In the third hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, former Sugar Regulatory Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica disclosed in a supplemental affidavit he submitted that last August 4, he held a meeting with President Marcos Jr.

In the said meeting, Serafica claims that President Marcos Jr. commanded Serafica to draft a new sugar order. This claim was corroborated by SRA board member Aurelio Valderrama, who was also present at the hearing in the Senate.

“The instruction was to submit an import plan, and in the language of the SRA, an import plan is an import program in the form of a Sugar Order,” mentioned Serafica.

According to Serafica, Marcos Jr. first suggested the 600,000 metric tons which the former SRA chief deemed too much. Then, Serafica proposed 300,000 metric tons which were recommended by industry groups.

Data released by the government shows that sugar confectionery and desert inflation increased to 26% year-on-year for the month of August as beet and cane sugar inflation reached 54.7%.

According to Nicholas Mapa, senior economist at ING Bank in Manila, increased prices for sugar “can spill to other items such as soft drinks, where inflation jumped to 4.1% (in August) from 2.7% (in July).”

Source: Philstar