NEGROS: SUGAR LEADERS BUCK MOVE TO REFINE 'D' SUGAR
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, OCTOBER 11, 2007 (STAR) THE SOUTHERN BEAT By Rolly Espina - Sugar leaders yesterday bucked the proposed move of Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela to refine “D” (world export sugar) before shipping it out of the country.And they also criticized another proposal to refine the “A” (US-destined sugar) as unnecessary and could only lead to its rejection.
Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Association, vigorously objected to the Coscolluela plan as this could possibly leak the refined “D” sugar into the domestic market and thus benefit traders.
“D” sugar now fetches P450 per bag, while refined sugar last week sold at P1,250 per Lkg or 50-kilogram bag.
The others – Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, and Francis Treñas, president of the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Planters – joined Lamata in denouncing the move that could reportedly give traders a margin of almost P800 per Lkg.
And there is really no reason for refining. In the first place, hardly anybody deals with refined sugar in the world market. Second, the United States requires its quota raw sugar because it wants to protect its refineries.
The same attitude is the policy of most sugar-importing countries, Lamata pointed out.
Thus, from the point of view of usefulness, only a trading firm in Dubai is reportedly interested in buying 500 metric tons of refined sugar from the Philippines.
Both Lamata and Rojas yesterday aired their opposition to the Coscolluela proposal during the meeting of leaders of the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines with Bureau of Internal Revenue officials in Manila.
Incidentally, both leaders pointed out that never before had “D” sugar been refined. It could leak to the domestic market and pull down the price of raw sugar.
Besides, Rojas said refining cost locally is the highest in the world and refined “D” sugar will never be sold at competitive prices in the world market.
Both sugar leaders hinted that they might ask for a House investigation into the Coscolluela proposal should he insist on going through with it.
Coscolluela told the sugar leaders that the Philippine International Sugar Corp. has a pending application to export 500 tons of refined sugar to Dubai.
The Sugar Board is expected to take up the matter today.
But that was not the sole reason. There have been many inquiries from the Middle East about refined sugar. There have been talks among members of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations about inquiries from the Middle East countries about refined sugar from the Philippines.
And, to a certain extent, Coscolluela was also right. If he had any ill motives, he could not have informed the sugar leaders about the application for “D” sugar.
Food processors, on the other hand, earlier had sat down with Coscolluela and they had more or less assured that they might agree to bring the customers and food processor exporters to discuss the details.
Both Luis Tongoy, vice president, and Locsin, chairman of the Panay-Negros chapter of Confed, said it enabled the producers and some 60 members of Customs-bonded warehouses and food processors to discuss details of how these may avail of the local “D” sugar.
In effect, by buying “D” sugar, they can lower their import cost. Such an agreement, they pointed out, could exempt them from the high freight and insurance cost as well as other expenses usually encountered in importing sugar even if exempt from tariff.
Apparently, the question of “D” sugar refining must be discussed more extensively with sugar producers by the sugar administrator.
That’s the situation as of this hour. Watch out for further developments.
Capitol tiff
A verbal tussle marred yesterday’s workshop at the provincial capitol when the mayor of Candoni town in southern Negros Occidental charged that he was not getting adequate assistance from the provincial government.
That verbal assault irked Vice Gov. Isidro Zayco who blasted Candoni Mayor Cicero Borromeo, a neophyte town executive.
The verbal exchanges almost led to a fracas, except that cooler heads like Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon restrained the two protagonists from possibly mixing it up.
Zayco, when he heard Borromeo, interjected that the mayor’s perception that his town was not being getting its share of provincial government aid was wrong. Borromeo, however, maintained his loud voice and went on to excoriate the provincial government.
It was board member Nehemias de la Cruz who said that the provincial government has given Candoni more than P1.2 million in assistance in the last four months.
Gov. Marañon stood up from a press conference and rushed to the workshop to see what was going on.
He said Borromeo has developed the habit of raising his voice usually at our expense. “But it has high hopes that Candoni could become like Makati; that is a tall order,” Marañon observed.
Borromeo, son of iconoclastic columnist Cesar Borromeo, grew up mostly in the US.
Anyway, all ended up well when the situation later simmered down. But that was the first time that happened in Negros Occidental. Well, there will always be a first.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2007
by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved