BACOLOD City – More groups in Negros Occidental have manifested their protest against the proposed liberalization of sugar imports.
Leaders of the Solidarity of Workers in the Sugar Industry (SWSI) and the Save the Sugar Industry Movement (SSIM) expressed their opposition by tearing a replica of the proposal during a forum at Gerald’s Restobar here on Thursday.
SSIM convenor Wennie Sancho said the tearing of the replica, which was a wide piece of paper with a text that read “Proposed Sugar Import Liberalization,” emphasized their crusade against government economic managers’ proposed “deadly” policy.
“If we wait for this sugar import liberalization to materialize, we would have waited too long. We must confront the worst threat before they emerge,” Sancho said.
“The only path for the survival of the sugar industry is the path to action. Let us protect sugar and save Negros by action,” he added.
The statement of solidarity released by SSIM and SWSI stated that advocates and multi-sectoral cause-oriented leaders from different labor organizations in Negros Occidental condemn in the strongest possible terms the proposed measure as it would obliterate the local sugar industry displacing thousands of sugar workers and their families.
They added that a disaster would come upon like an overwhelming flood, if the sugar industry will collapse as a result of sugar import deregulation.
“It is our right and our moral duty to oppose sugar import liberalization because the anticipated economic damage, if not prevented, would be greater and dangerous,” the groups added.
Meanwhile, the Sugar Farmers Federation-Kilusang Pagbabago –composed of 11 associations in Negros Occidental – said in a statement the country’s economic managers, who are pushing for the sugar imports liberalization, should know their place in policy-making.
“We campaigned and voted for President Rodrigo Duterte to lead us and make decisions for our nation. We did not vote for you, economic managers, so you don’t have the right to make decisions or proposals which will affect us, the 5 million Filipinos who depend on the sugar industry for our livelihood,” the group’s chairman Aaron Sorbito said.
“Our marginal farmers, mostly agrarian reform beneficiaries, need government support to lower cost of production and increase yields, not import liberalization,” he added.
On Wednesday, the Senate passed a resolution urging the Executive Department not to pursue the plan to liberalize the sugar industry to safeguard the economy and welfare of sugar farmers and workers in 28 provinces in the country, including Negros Occidental.
Economic managers of the administration earlier proposed the liberalization of sugar imports due to high prices of local sugar against those in the world market and that the same affects the competitiveness of sugar-containing food products for export.
Budget secretary Benjamin Diokno earlier said that a 30 percent to 40 percent tariff rate is being eyed on sugar importation. (PNA)
