BACOLOD City – Local sugar stakeholders opposed the government’s plan to liberalize sugar importation in the country to address the spike in the commodity’s retail prices.
Wennie Sancho and Hernane Braza, representatives to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Western Visayas, submitted their manifestation letter to counter the proposed measure before the Department of Labor and Employment Region 6 on Tuesday.
Sancho said their letter will also be endorsed to the Regional Development Council and the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council.
There are 84,000 farmers and 720,000 industrial workers in the region who will suffer from adverse economic effects should the sugar import policy be deregulated, according to Sancho.
Sancho and Braza said the proposal would lead to “massive unemployment” and would “kill” the local sugar industry.
“It is important that this vital social concern should be taken up in various agencies of the government. This labor concern involves wages, productivity and employment that should alarm the members of the RTWRB,” part of their letter read.
The RTWPB representatives believe that the passage of the new rice ratification law is a “prelude” to the liberalization of sugar importation in the country.
“There will be no productivity and wages to talk about when the local sugar industry is dead because we are flooded with imported sugar when sugar liberalization is implemented,” they said./PN