FIFTEEN congressmen, including all 10 from Negros Island Region, are proposing a resolution urging the appropriate committee to immediately conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the impacts of the importation, use and sale of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) on the sustainability of the sugar industry.
As this developed, Bacolod City Representative Greg Gasataya said he will deliver his first privilege speech at the House of Representatives today related to the potential problem of the sugar industry due the importation of HFCS.
Gasataya introduced the resolution along with those from Negros Occidental, including Representatives Melecio Yap of the First District; Leo Rafael Cueva, Second District; Alfredo Benitez, Third District; Juliet Ferrer, Fourth District; Alejandro Mirasol, Fifth District; and Mercedes Alvarez, Sixth District.
Others are three from Negros Oriental, including Jocelyn Limkaichong of First District; Manuel Sagarbarria, Second District; and Arnulfo Teves Jr., Third District; Emmanuel Billones, Capiz - First District; Manuel Zubiri, Bukidnon - Third District; Joseph Stephen Paduano, Abang Lingkod partylist; Noel Villanueva, Tarlac - Third District; Arcadio Gorriceta, Iloilo - Second District.
The resolution noted that HFCS is an imported alternative sweeter made from corn starch through the conversion of glucose to fructose by glucose isomerase application widely used in the production of soft drinks and in food processing.
It added that there is controversy over the health risks presented by HFCS consumption.
The sugar industry is a major component of the socio-economic and political structure of the country.
According to the Confederation of Sugar Producers Inc. (Confed), the importation, use , and sale of HFCS, as an artificial sweetener, has caused a dramatic drop in price from the P1,800 per 50-kilogram bag peak in September 2016 down to the P1,500 price in December of the same year, and a stagnation in sugar stocks.
The Confed also stated that based on records of the Bureau of Customs, around 234,863 metric tons of HFCS, equivalent to 352,394.5 metric tons of sugar, entered the country in 2016, translating to loss of P10.5 billion in the sugar industry.
The National Federation of Sugar Producers has projected an opportunity loss in the amount of P25 billion, and has recommended the immediate regulation of HFCS importation.
“There is a need to regulate the importation, sale, and use of HFCS in in order to protect our sugar industry and sugarcane farmers, farmworkers, landowners, cooperative, and the health of our consumers and insist our sugar industry to be competitive in both the domestic and the international markets,” Gasataya said.
“As a member of the Congress and a native of Bacolod, it is my duty and obligation together with the other congressmen from the sugar-producing provinces in the country to protect the sugar industry," he said.
“We should investigate so that we can act on how to protect our sugar industry,” he added.
In a related development, the Save-Sugar Industry Movement (Save-SIM) called on the members of Sugar Board to free the deliberation on the HFCS from unwarranted interventions of the beverage and softdrink companies.
In her visit to Bacolod Friday, Sugar Regulatory Administration head Anna Rosario Paner asked local industry stakeholders for more time to decide on the pressing HFCS issue.
Paner said the Sugar Board will deliberate on the issue during their meeting in Ormoc City on February 17.
Wennie Sancho, lead convenor of Save-SIM, Sunday said the group currently has “guarded optimism” on the result of the deliberation.
Sancho said the group's only hope now is that the decision of the four members of the Sugar Board chaired by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol will not be affected by the interference of the "lobbyists" of the private companies, particularly of softdrink manufacturers.