Benitez to ask Aquino to certify Sugarcane Bill as urgent

REPRESENTATIVE Alfredo Benitez (3rd district, Negros Occidental), principal author of the Sugarcane Bill, said he will ask President Benigno Aquino III to certify the bill as urgent, as the 15th Congress is set to adjourn on February 6.

The problem is not in the House of Representatives anymore, Benitez said, as he cited the intramurals in the Senate.

"I will try to ask President Aquino to certify the bill as urgent. Maybe that is the only chance that it can make it in the 15th Congress," he said when he attended the 1st District Barangay Assembly in San Carlos City during the weekend.

There are only three days left before the 15th Congress adjourns.

Benitez confirmed that the House version was already forwarded by the House Committees on Agriculture and Food and Appropriations to the Executive Director of the Plenary Bureau.

“We are transmitting six copies of the Committee Report submitted by the Committees on Agriculture and Food and Appropriations on House Bill 6880 in substation of House Bill No. 6113 entitled An Act strengthening the development of the Sugar Industry by establishing the sugar cane industry development fund," the transmittal stated.

Benitez said that if President Aquino can certify the bill as urgent, he is optimistic that it can be approved within the 15th Congress.

However, if the bill cannot be certified as urgent, "In the next Congress if I am still there, it will be the first bill that I will refile," Benitez vowed.

Benitez is up for re-election for a second term.

Since the bill was already approved in the House, Benitez said it will not take long and it will become a law.

The bill introduced in the House by Benitez is deemed to address the threats to the sugar industry by year 2015 when the tariff on imported sugar is expected to go down to as low as five percent.

The Senate version is sponsored by Senator Chiz Escudero.

The objective of the measure is to revitalize and strengthen the sugar industry through diversification, development and financing program, promoting the interest of the sugarcane farmers, planters, mill workers and consumers, as well as contributing to the food security objectives of the government. (TDE)