Sell cheap the sugar seized in Batangas

Malacañang would do well to retail the sugar brought into Batangas piers. Its Kadiwa rolling stores for poor consumers would be the best outlets. That will bring down sweetener prices.

Customs is holding 6,500 tons of Thai refined sugar unloaded from three ships last Feb. 9. The 130,000 50-kilo sacks are worth P650 million. Such volume and amount are enough to stabilize inflationary rates that worry President Marcos Jr.

The sugar can be sold through Kadiwa at P50 a kilo, half the prevailing market rate. Motoring daily into different poor communities, the stores can limit the sale to a kilo or two per buyer. Indigents will have ample stocks.

The processed sweetener is safe for home use and agricultural biosecurity. It’s not like raw seafood, chicken, pork, vegetables and fruits that may contain toxins, E. coli, pests and disease. Thailand usually supplies Philippine sugar shortfalls. Plant industry and health officials can check for sanitary/phytosanitary packaging, shipping and storage.

The sugar arrived Feb. 9 in 260 cargo containers without the usual Sugar Regulatory Administration permits. The last shipments under SRA Sugar Order No. 2, of Sep. 13, 2022, should have arrived by last Nov. 15. New arrivals under SRA Sugar Order No. 6, of Feb. 15, 2023, should start only Mar. 1.

Customs need not go through tedious auction procedures. Marcos Jr. has authority to quicken the process. If auctioned, traders would bid low then resell high for profit. By retailing direct to consumers at half the shipment value, government is assured of P325 million income.

The sugar landing at Port of Batangas was first broadcast Feb. 13 on Ted Failon’s top-rating radio-TV show. Entry was then being facilitated through Customs “super green lane” for long-time importers.

That same day Agriculture Asst. Sec. James Layug requested newly appointed Customs chief Bienvenido Rubio for an “alert order and joint 100-percent inspection.” A warrant of seizure and detention was issued, Customs Deputy Commissioner Vener Baquiran said. Shipment consignee is All Asian Countertrade Inc., of sugar trader Michael Escaler.

The following week Senator Risa Hontiveros denounced the landing as “government-sponsored smuggling.”  Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban had authorized it as far back as Jan. 13, she revealed.

By law SRA should accept, evaluate and allocate imports under any sugar order. Hontiveros alleged that Panganiban favored only three sugar shippers to bring in 450,000 tons. That selection and allocation were made a month before SRA Sugar Order No. 6 of Feb. 15.

Next day, Feb. 22, Panganiban admitted having authorized Escaler’s All Asian Countertrade to bring in 250,000 tons. As well, Sucden Philippines Inc. of one “Mr. Alvarado” and Edison Lee Marketing Corp. of one “Mr. Lee” to each bring in 100,000 tons.

Panganiban said he acted on Jan. 13 instructions of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin. Panganiban sits in the five-man SRA board, chaired by Marcos Jr. as Secretary of Agriculture. Bersamin, who has yet to speak on the matter, is not in the SRA chain of command, although first among Cabinet equals.

Layug on Jan. 13 led Customs and coast guards in interdicting 4,000 tons of Thai sugar from a ship in Bauan, Batangas. Consignee of the sugar worth P400 million was Stone International Co., Ltd.

On Feb. 6, 15 and 16, Layug and Customs intercepted three Chinese sugar shipments totaling P27.3 million at Manila International Container Port. Consignee of the mis-declared motorcycle parts was Kanluran Consumer Goods Trading.

In both instances, no-bail life-term charges of economic sabotage were filed. The Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act deems as heinous the sneaking in of at least P1 million worth of sugar, vegetables and meat, and P10 million of rice.

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