Pacete: Moral of the Coke Story

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

COKE has spoken. The US-based company is not buying our Negros sugar or the Philippine sugar to be specific, because it is expensive. Coke has also made an admission that our sugar is best but Thailand sugar and other sugar substitutes from America are cheap. The company accepts that the pre-mix sugar is able to get inside the country because of the provision of our law. It is legal. There is no irregularity.

The Bureau of Customs supported by the Sugar Regulatory Administration believes that this pre-mix sugar is 99 percent sugar plus coloring; therefore, it is sugar and should pay the necessary tax for sugar.
The Sugar Watch, some planter associations and the anti-Coke movements are out to boycott Coca Cola products. The reasons are well explained in the tri media. There are sympathizers. There are bystanders. There are watchers who really watch what’s going to happen next.

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Are we really serious with this ‘boycott’ thing? Or is this just a display of overwhelming passion because our industry is directly hit?
Negrenses have been Coke drinkers for decades. We also patronize other Coke products, including the bottled water produced from one of our cities in Negros Occidental. We cannot change the scenario overnight. Several national and international food chains in our province are carrying Coke products. They cannot do away with contracts.

The local government units will be ungrateful if they bark at Coke now. One of the major sponsors of their past fiesta was Coke. Coke displayed its ‘banderitas’, provided kiosks to concessionaires, offered complimentary products to fiesta organizers, supplied freezers and coolers, sponsored a street party with live band, and even had Miss Coke Beauty during the pageant night. Coke is synonymous to charter day, religious fiesta, alumni homecoming, family reunion, and Christmas celebration. “It is the real thing! Coke adds life!”

In spirit and in principle, I am with the boycott movement. I am for the sugar industry. Can we not find a solution having a ‘win-win formula’? I would prefer a negotiating table to tackle the issues. Our leaders in the province and in the sugar industry should keep their cool under fire and face the music with Coke representatives. If possible we want to avoid a ‘bottled battle’. We do not want to have open war with the soda ambassador of America to the world.

For the planters, millers and traders – we have a lesson to learn from here. If we really are serious with the sugar industry, then we have to be consistently consistent with our consistencies. Let us have a closer look at the industry. How many of our hacenderos are serious with their haciendas? Are we selective with our sugarcane variety? Do we prepare the field properly and do we apply the right amount of certified fertilizers? Is our plowing and weeding based on proper practice? Are we providing proper canals for drainage? Do we have pest control and irrigation program? Do we close the field with proper ‘raspa’?

Dear hacenderos, when the price of sugar is best, do we share the blessings with the ‘dumaans’ and the ‘sacadas’? Are their houses in our haciendas fit to be called ‘house of man’? Or our workers are just living in ‘barabaras’, wherein they get enough of rain during the rainy season and enough of scorching heat during summer? Do we pay on time what is due for their SSS, Health Care, and PAG-IBIG benefits? Is their salary near or far from the Minimum Wage Law? Do we provide socio-economic programs in our haciendas for cooperatives, scholarship, emergency loans, rice loan, backyard gardening or group farming? I personally experienced life in the hacienda, especially during the ‘tiempo muerto’.

I know that many of the hacenderos have also forgotten their God-given obligation to their workers. This Coke Story will give our planters the opportunity to reinvent themselves. We appeal to the conscience of the millers to be fair in their milling practices and update their facilities to give the best turn-out. We appeal to the traders and to the cartel not to horde our sugar. We, the consumers, suffer. We appeal to the authorities to be vigilant and stop sugar smuggling. If smugglers are just among us and within us or they are us – then who will stop smuggling? (To whom it may concern only.)

It is not only Coke which is itching us. There are other companies that are into pre-mix sugar. Why scratch Coke alone? If we are to be serious, then we have to be serious. Boycott is good, but then, it has to be meaningful. In the past, we had fuel boycott. It worked out. Then, we forget. Then, we remember again.

Let us admit, we have mistakes. Let us correct our mistakes and recover what we missed. Let us also consider that every blessing would always be bigger than the eyes that see what is missing. Let’s drink to that!