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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Friday, April 7, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Beverage companies using high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have only six months to consume their remaining stocks before they are subjected to full regulation, the governor of Bukidnon claimed.
Jose Maria Zubiri Jr. and President Rodrigo Duterte discussed the sugar industry and the importation and use of the contentious alternative sweetener last month, Zubiri told the press on Thursday.
Duterte pointed out that the HFCS stocks were already at ports and the beverage companies already paid millions of pesos for them, Zubiri said.
But that the President gave a deadline was the chief executive’s way of supporting the cause of producers and farmworkers, he said.
“The sugar industry … has a brighter future,” said Zubiri. “For the first time, the President had an answer to the plight of the sugar industry.”
After six months, all beverage companies and other HFCS importers will be fully subjected to Sugar Order (SO) No. 3, he said.
In March, sugar producers from various provinces, including those in Negros and Panay islands, met with Duterte, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and the Department of Agriculture to discuss HFCS.
At the time, Zubiri said, he told the President that millions of people will suffer if the sugar industry continues to take a hit due to the unabated importation and use of the alternative sweetener.
According to Zubiri, Duterte told him this should not happen, and the sugar industry needs support and may be improved.
SO No. 3, issued by the SRA, puts in place strict regulatory measures with regard to the importation of HFCS.
Under the order, an importer or consignee must be an international trader duly-registered with the SRA at the time of the application for clearance for release of the imported alternative sweetener.
All applicants for the release of imported HFCS and chemically pure fructose must also submit to the Regulation Department of the SRA in Quezon City various requirements, which must all be complied with before the application can be accepted for processing.
Further, clearance for the release shall indicate the classification of the fructose as “B” for domestic market, “C” for reserved and “D” for world market.
Noncompliance with the order’s provisions shall subject the importer or consignee to penalties under SO No. 10, as amended by SO No. 10-A, “without prejudice to any other administrative and/or legal action the SRA may pursue.”
Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, Inc., an HFCS importer, filed a civil suit against SO No. 3, seeking its nullification, before a Quezon City court./PN
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