“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, who are pushing for import liberalization of sugar, 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.
With their policy of import liberalization of rice and sugar, the economic managers are supporting farmers from Vietnam and Thailand, instead of supporting Filipino farmers, the group pointed out.
The sugar industry contributes about P150 million annually to the economy, according to the group. They demanded that, out of these funds contributed by the industry, the economic managers should implement programs which will benefit sugarcane farmers and not policies which will kill the farmers’ livelihood.
“The farmers cannot lower their production cost and increase their yields on their own. We need government support, such as cheaper fertilizer, easier access to production financing and farm equipment, more farm-to-market roads, and fuel subsidy for our transport, similar to the Pantawid Pasada Program,” the group explained.
“Give back to the sugar industry the hundreds of billions it has been contributing to the national economy for decades,” the ARB federation demanded.
The group also pointed out that industrial users, food processors and food exporters consume more sugar than ordinary Filipino consumers.
“It is not the ordinary consumers but the industrial users, food processors and food exporters who will primarily benefit from this proposed sugar import liberalization being pushed by the country’s economic managers,” the group stated.
“Our group is committed to stand with the sugar industry in this fight against sugar import liberalization,” the group emphasized. (PR)