Despite the fact of Government claims that sufficient amount of supply of sugar, the Department of Agriculture has instructed the National Food Authority to import at least 150,000 metric tons to stabilize the price of the commodity.
Last year (2009) a much anticipated increase on the price sugar was felt as it rose to P52 per kilo. Series of protest actions were made to air the sentiments of the sugar producing provinces like Negros, Cebu and Ormoc. Negros as the sugar bastion of the Philippines is responsible to supply 60% of the entire country.
Gerondio Dagu-ob of the Negros Federation of Sugar Workers said it is premature for the Government to declare that there is a shortage of supply of sugar when the milling season is at its peak right now. The increase of price in the local markets is because of a price manipulation scheme in order to create a sugar crisis scenario to justify the need to import sugar from elsewhere, Dagu-ob added.
Sugar Traders are the ones who get to taste the sweetness of sugar – in cahoots with the Department of Agriculture who is pushing for sugar importation. There is a contradicting statement basing from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) that sugar in the country is at normal level with an estimated sugar production of 2.16 metric tons for crop year 2009-2010.
NFSW further stressed that sugar planters and traders reap huge profits while sugar workers and their families continue to toil – most of the sugar planters and landlords do not follow the mandated P218 minimum wage for its workers.
