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[av_heading heading=’Sugar industryfund slashed? ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
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BACOLOD City –The fund for the sugar industry has been slashed, according to Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Alfredo Benitez.
Benitez claimed he found out about this when the national expenditure program came out.
Funding for the sugarindustry for2017 has been brought down to only P1.562 billionfrom the supposed P2 billion, he said.
Benitez stressed that P2 billion was the mandatory appropriation for the sugarindustry under the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA).
The 3rd District congressman authored the law.
Of the mandatory allocation, P1 billion must be allotted for infrastructures, while the other P1 billion shall be for grants, scholarships and support services, he said.
Benitez wants the around P500 million back.
“We will lobby for this, especially the sugar-producing provinces and districts,” he stressed. “We are getting the short end of the stick.”
The congressman already wrote Department of Budget and Management secretary Benjamin Diokno about this.
“It’s about time to ask Congress to comply with the provisions of the law,” Benitez said.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said deliberationson the 2017 national budget were not yet finished.
“I’ll look at it anyway,” Alvarez said when asked to comment on the alleged budget slashing. “It can be corrected.”/PN
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