BACOLOD City Councilor Ricardo Tan expressed support to the call of sugarcane planters for the regulation of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) importation.
“I support their stand to stop the importation of HFCS because it affects our sugar industry,” Tan said, adding that it also affects the livelihood of small sugarcane farmers and farm workers.
He also supported the call of the sugar planters to boycott the Coca-Cola products because HFCS is not good for the health.
Tan, owner of Campuestohan and Highland Resorts, said he has not offered Coca-Cola products in his food businesses since 1977.
The anti-HFCS group had earlier held a rally in front of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Barangay Mansilingan to dramatize their demand for the regulation of HFCS importation.
Moreover, Bacolod City Lone District Representative Greg Gasataya said Monday, May 1 that the House committee on agriculture will release today the schedule of the hearing on issues related to HFCS importation.
“Probably this would be the continuation of the hearing conducted by the Senate on the issues of HFCS,” he said.
Gasataya, along with some of his colleagues in Congress, had authored a resolution urging the appropriate committee to immediately conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the impact of the importation, use, and sale of HFCS on the sustainability of the sugar industry.
Members of the Visayan Bloc led by Negros Occidental Third District Representative Alfredo Benitez also pushed for an investigation.