Sugar import fiasco 2.0

After the past two years of being suspended due to the pandemic, the number one tourist attraction in Bacolod City in Negros Occidental celebrated in full colors and regalia their very popular Masskara Festival again. No less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) joined them in the full revival of the annual fiesta event of the people of Bacolod. The Chief Executive took the occasion to call upon the entire Filipino nation to safely go back to our cultural and religious activities that have not celebrated due to the pandemic.

Starting Undas next week, the President encouraged Filipinos to visit again tourist spots around the country. In fact, the President issued Proclamation 79, declaring Oct.31 as a “special non-working day” all over the country to enable Filipinos to spread “holiday economics” until All Saints Day on Nov.1, one of the official holidays in the Philippines. The President reminded though the public to continue observing health and safety protocols and most important of all, get anti-COVID jabs and booster as added protection. The President still got COVID infection the second time despite being jabbed and booster shots but was able to quickly recover.

The other most important message of PBBM while in Bacolod City was a policy pronouncement on further improving the sugar production in the province. The province of Negros is one of the major sugar producers in our country. Many of the rich people in Negros are sugar barons while the poor mostly come from families of sacada, or sugar plantation workers.

Speaking of sugar, a reader of this corner sent a rejoinder to my column last Friday (Oct.21) about the botched importation of sugar by the former Board officials of the Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) during the first few weeks of the PBBM administration. In that column, Sen.Francis “Tol” Tolentino, as the new chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, discussed with us some of the findings and recommendations on the questioned Sugar Order (SO) No.4. Among other things, the Blue Ribbon Committee Report declared there was enough preliminary evidence indicating grave administrative offenses of the former SRA Board officials behind the questioned importation of 300,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar.

Two months later, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) presented to media last Oct.17 about their seizure of alleged attempt to smuggle P228 million worth of refined sugar imported from Thailand. The BOC claimed having detected 76 containers that arrived on Sept. 24 and reportedly contained “misdeclared and undeclared” items.

During our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday (Oct.17), Tolentino told us he was not aware of this latest alleged sugar smuggling attempt.

Anyway, Tolentino cited, the majority report of the Blue Ribbon Committee on the SO No.4 is still being debated at the floor. When both chambers of Congress resume on Nov.7, the plenary debate on the Committee Report will resume at the Senate floor, he pointed out.

Reacting to this BOC announcement, the consignee of the seized imported sugar shipment, Manuel Macainag Jr. president of Bee Crescent Blending Corp. belied accusations against them. Reprinted below is the Letter to the Editor he sent to us in full:

Dear Ms. Villanueva,

I read your column just now and I felt the need to clarify your article about the sugar seized last Monday that BOC advertised as smuggled. This is another blunder that people in the BOC has committed so much like what they have “accomplished” with the sugar shipment in Subic. You can search the result in the web where the Customs officials allegedly responsible for the smuggling attempt were re-instated last September 1, 2022.

The sugar was legally imported under the program of and certified by SRA. The sugar shipment that arrived last Sept 24 is also under Sugar Order No. 2 of the SRA. However, very “reliable” customs personnel (the same ones involved in the Subic blunder) issued this same seizure order on this sugar shipment.

Had they been diligent enough to perform their duties well they will see in the Bureau of Customs Customer Care web portal that all the necessary import documents especially the SRA CLEARANCE TO RELEASE IMPORTED SUGAR under SUGAR ORDER no. 2 Series 2022-2023 CONSUMER was submitted on Oct 3, 2022. But, the supposed to be intelligent personnel of the CUSTOMS INTELLIGENCE AND INVESTIGATION SERVICES or the CIIS Field Station of the MICP decided for the seizure based on their hunch.

We were supposed to process the release of this shipment by the first week of October. Now storage and demurrage cost are piling up. Can you imagine the millions lost because of incompetent personnel manning our agencies?

The sugar is our shipment. We participated in the import program to augment the supply shortage, stabilize prices and for the use of our domestic consumers and small food industries.

I can provide you with all the documents should you require. Up to now, we are praying and exhausting ourselves that the BOC will decide based on documents submitted and not on hunches. I hope this will clarify. Thank you. Truly yours. (Note: We have been participating in almost all the sugar import programs of the SRA though not as big as the other traders.)

I sent a copy of this letter to the BOC but they have yet to respond to it as of this writing.

Was this really sugar import fiasco 2.0 a la Subic?

These are very serious accusations of supposed smuggled sugar when its importation was legal. Or this BOC media play just to misdirect media and public attention?