Zubiri slams SRA for “slow action”

CEBU, Philippines - Former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri has criticized the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for its alleged slow action on the problems of the Philippine sugar industry, particularly the threats of the almost-zero tariff for imported sugar starting 2015.

Zubiri has been questioning the SRA where was the supposed master development plan for the sugar industry, copies of which were reportedly given only to presidents of planters’ groups.

“I’m calling for the government now to give their message. If they do, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt… If it’s true that there’s a master plan, please release that master plan, please publish that, and make sure it is not just a master plan but an action plan,” he told The Freeman last Thursday.

Zubiri lamented that it seems the PowerPoint presentation of these plans are impressive, but it lacks proper implementation. “We must reform and reengineer our sugar industry or else we won’t survive the low tariff starting 2015,” he added.

Under the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA)—Common Effective Preferential Treatment (CEPT), tariffs on imported sugar will go lower since tariff rates on sugar from competing ASEAN countries will be gradually reduced. This 2012, the duty on ASEAN sugar goes down to 28 percent, 18 percent by 2013, 10 percent by 2014, and 5 percent by 2015.

Zubiri said the master development plant must also be released to small farmers, so the industry can better prepare for the effects of low-tariff on imported sugar in 2015.

Zubiri said his earlier criticisms on the slow action on the problems of the sugar industry have ruffled the feathers of some SRA officials and planters’ groups, but he was only echoing the statements of more than 9,000 small farmers in Bukidnon.

He lamented that the government has not yet initiated steps on softening the impact of low tariff on the local sugar industry. “I am sorry if I hurt the feelings of some people in the sugar industry, but I am only telling the truth about the sentiments of farmers in Bukidnon,” he said.

There are two sugar centrals in Bukidnon, he said. The sugar industry was brought almost 40 years ago to Bukidnon from Negros Occidental by his father, Bukidnon Vice Governor Jose Ma. Zubiri.

With prices of sugar per bag plummeting to between P950 to P900, Zubiri said Bukidnon farmers would rather go into banana or pineapple. While Bukidnon farmers may go into fruit production, corn, rubber or palm oil production, Negros cannot shift to other industry.

Zubiri stressed the need to continue focusing on the “sugarcane” industry, and said there are some farmers, even his relatives in Negros, still holding on to the idea of “quedans.”

“We have to change our mindset and to look at sugarcane, not just for sugar, but also the production of energy and ethanol fuel,” he said. The only way to survive the looming sugar crisis is to copy what India and Brazil did, which do not produced sugar but all products of sugarcane, Zubiri said.

He lamented that the Biofuels Law and Renewable Energy Law, which he both authored, were passed six and three years ago, respectively, but until now are not properly implemented. “We have no concrete programs yet,” Zubiri said. “We cannot afford five million people, who are directly and indirectly dependent to the industry, to die overnight because of lack of planning,” he added. (FREEMAN)