Ex-guv appeals to government vs smugglers

FORMER Negros Occidental governor and Sugar Regulatory administrator calls for the National Government to “prosecute” possible “illegal traders” and smugglers of goods, especially sugar, that “threatens the local industry.”

Gubernatorial returnee and candidate Rafael Coscolluela said smuggling is prevalent in the country.

Click here for Election 2010 updates

Enrique D. Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters on Monday said in a press statement that “sugar smuggling has once again reared its ugly head in the country amid the softening of world sugar prices.”

Coscolluela said the reported sugar smuggling, mostly from Thailand, that invades the local market of Cebu, could have gained its entry from Mindanao as a “back door.”

He said the drop of sugar price in the world market would increase the number of traders to buy smuggled goods. The drastic decline in sugar prices were noted from P2,000 per kilo bag to a low P1,600, Coscolluela said.

The cheaper smuggled sugar caused domestic sugar prices to collapse to the detriment not only of producers but also of the traders, Rojas said.

“It’s high time to activate or mobilize effort to search and prosecute retailers…holders or traders,” he said.

“Let the National Government through its agency take necessary course of action, because smuggling is against the law,” said Incumbent Governor Isidro Zayco.

Anti-Smuggling Task Force

Coscolluela said he has confidence that the anti-smuggling task force “knows what to do with it (goods smuggling activities) and what needs to be done.”

The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) has urged the task force to heed the call in running after the smugglers’ group.

Rojas urged NFSP to monitor the other markets and determine if smuggled sugar has already penetrated other areas in the country so that necessary legal action can be taken immediately against the perpetrators.

“The sugar industry’s Anti-Smuggling Task Force has compiled a data based on suspected sugar smugglers, their warehouses and their distribution points. These people and their illegal operations will be closely scrutinized in view of these reports so that they can be prevented from inflicting further damage to the sugar industry, like what they used to do in the past,” Rojas said. (George M. De La Cruz)