THE ARBs Sugar Farmers Federation-Kilusang Pagbabago is urging the government to reconsider plans to liberalize the importation of sugar.

“Our marginal farmers, mostly agrarian reform beneficiaries, need government support to lower cost of production and increase yields, not import liberalization,” said Aaron Sorbito, chairman of the ARBs Sugar Farmers Federation–Kilusang Pagbabago.

The group, which is composed of 11 ARB associations in Negros, reminded the country’s economic managers that they should know their place in policy-making.

“We campaigned and voted for President Rodrigo Duterte to lead us and make decisions for our nation. We did not vote for you, economic managers, so you don’t have the right to make decisions or proposals which will affect us, the five million Filipinos who depend on the sugar industry for our livelihood,” Sorbito stressed.

“These so-called financial experts are sowing dissatisfaction and dissent among the President’s mass-based supporters. They will not succeed, because we still trust our President to look after the welfare of hundreds of thousands of marginal farmers in the country,” he added. (PR)