Editorial: Sugar rush

NON-GOVERNMENT think-tank Ibon Foundation has taken government to task for continuing to honor its commitment of exporting sugar to the US when sugar stocks in the country is fast being depleted, forcing the people to shell out more than they would have regularly budgeted.

Saying that government should stop exportation of sugar to the US because the looming shortage is a question of food security, Ibon, it its February 4 news, underscored the threat of major supermarkets to pull out sugar products from their shelves because of government's insistence on a price ceiling even when market prices have already far exceeded that ceiling.

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In reply to the looming shortage, government resorted to duty-free importation of 150,000 metric tons, Ibon said. But there's more from where this is coming from...

"(T)he group said that while the country is scrambling to import sugar from the world market, the Philippines is also set to export about 158,906 MT of sugar to the US under a quota system and to take advantage of skyrocketing global prices brought about by the reported reduced sugar production in India and Brazil," the news read.

The rigmarole of local supplies being shipped out while locals have to scramble for scarce supply reflects insensitivity to what people really need; an illustration of how governance places importance on the not so important.

As explained, "Philippine sugar exports go to the US market under its Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) system", a system that sets the volume of raw cane sugar to be allowed to enter the US at low tariff under the World Trade Organization Uruguay agreements.

That does not mean the country is bound, gagged, and forced to deliver the volume though, if continuing to do such will place its own food security in peril.

Thailand and India suspended rice exports during the rice crisis in 2008 as their governments had to ensure that their people have a steady supply of the staple first before sending out their supply to other countries, Ibon said. The Philippine government can do the same, if indeed it has the interest of its people on top of its priorities.

The bottomline here is the government's sincerity to protect national interest first.

Southern Mindanao may not be feeling it so much, but the El Nino continues to rage on and is expected to continue until after the first quarter of this year. Most affected are the farmlands in the Visayas and Luzon where major producers of sugar are. Pitch in the effects of a drought on other staples like rice and we have a recipe for disaster, just in time for the May elections...

Maybe that's what this is all about... sugar and rice in exchange for your votes, anyone?