The authorities ought to flip over the confiscated smuggled sugar to the Department of Social Welfare and Development and distribute it to the much less lucky totally free, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros mentioned Friday.
The lawmaker launched a press release days after the Sugar Regulatory Administration amended its guidelines to authorize the donation of seized smuggled sugar to Kadiwa shops and permit its sale to most people.
SRA Board Member Pablo Azcona mentioned {that a} whole of 4,000 metric tons of seized smuggled refined sugar are able to be launched on the market at Kadiwa shops, the place it will likely be bought for P70 per kilo.
“Bakit pagkakakitaan pa ang galing sa iligal? Sa komputasyon ng aking opisina, dapat P65 lang ang presyo ng asukal na imported galing Thailand. Hindi ba ang goal ay maging abot-kaya ang presyo para sa lahat ng Pilipino? Pero bakit mataas pa rin ang presyo kung ibebenta?” Hontiveros asked.
(Why make a profit out of smuggled goods? Based on the computation of my office, sugar supplies which are imported from Thailand should be sold for P65 only. Isn’t the goal of Kadiwa stores to sell goods at a price that is affordable for Filipinos? But why are they still selling it at a much higher price?)
Hontiveros also said the SRA should expand the list of traders and industries that are authorized to procure sugar supplies instead of relying on smuggled sugar to supply Kadiwa stores.
The lawmaker said that the importation should not be limited to three suppliers, namely, All Asian Countertrade Inc., Edison Lee Marketing Corporation, and Sucden Philippines, whom she tagged as “favored” importers.
As in earlier years, these merchants will then compete to supply the bottom value to the market, in distinction to the prospect of excessive cartel-dictated costs, she mentioned.
“Hindi kailangang umasa ng Kadiwa shops sa mga puslit na asukal para mura ang benta nito. Kailangang sugpuin ang pribadong kartel sa asukal na nagpapataas ng presyo, dahil na rin sa kagagawan ng gobyerno,” Hontiveros mentioned.
(Kadiwa shops shouldn’t depend on smuggled sugar to make sure low costs. These non-public sugar cartels ought to be dismantled as a result of they set market costs, because of the federal government’s strikes.)
In March, Hontiveros disclosed that the three merchants could acquire billions from the supposed sugar importation. This prompted her to name it the “state-sponsored formation of a cartel.”
Further, Hontiveros mentioned that the Department of Agriculture and the SRA might increase their cooperation with stakeholders within the native sugar trade in order that manufacturing may be elevated even in the course of the ongoing milling season for sugar.
This, she mentioned, is consistent with the proposals by teams such because the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG).
“Hindi pagkunsinti sa smuggling ang sagot sa ating problema sa mataas na presyo ng asukal. Huwag tayong magpadala sa palusot ng mga nais manamantala sa problema sa hapag-kainan ng taumbayan,” she mentioned.
The Senate minority bloc has been prodding the Senate blue ribbon committee to launch a probe into the alleged irregular sugar importation on February 9 involving 260 20-foot containers of sugar from Thailand.
Hontiveros had mentioned that the February 9 shipments couldn’t have been coated by Sugar Order 6, because the allocation for this might solely begin on February 24. It was additionally not coated by earlier orders, because the earliest arrival date can be March 1.
The Senate blue ribbon committee is scheduled to start the investigation into the so-called “Sugar Fiasco No. 2” subsequent week. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
