RELEASE the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) for the distressed sugar workers and other workers in Negros.
This was the statement released Tuesday, March 24, by Kasama sa Pagbabago Inc. (KPI), a national development organization, pushing various social reform advocacies and working on development projects for the marginalized sectors.
The SAP which now stand in millions and probably billions managed by and releasable through the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) was created in 1974 by virtue of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 621 providing for a mandatory payment of a Stabilization Fee of P1.00 per picul, which was later increased to P2.00 per picul pursuant to PD 1209.
KPI in its statement stressed that the sugar industry has enough funds to save thousands of sugar workers and their millions of dependents from the debilitating impact of community quarantine caused by Covid-19.
“In two months’ time, the off season in the sugar farms, also known as the tiempo muerto (dead season), will also begin, and it is a double whammy for the sugar workers, so the SAP is a timely mitigation for more than two million who are dependent on the sugar industry,” KPI added.
Funds from SAP are also used to finance skills trainings, conferences and farm inputs.
Unclaimed funds from SAP have also been used to finance workers in other industries.
Prior to it, RA 809 otherwise known as the Sugar Act of 1952 provides that proceeds of any increase in the milling participation granted to planters and above their present share shall be divided between the planters and their laborers/workers in the plantation.
The SAP was further strengthened by the passage of the Sugar Amelioration Act of 1991(RA 6982) with the provision of additional monetary and welfare benefits for sugar workers and with the institutionalization of a tripartite approach in policy formulation and program development and implementation.
Section 7 of RA 6982 provides that effective crop year 1991-1992, a lien of P5.00 per picul of sugar shall be imposed on the gross production of sugar provided that there shall be an automatic additional lien of P1.00 for every two years for the succeeding ten years from the effectivity of the Act.
Also, under RA 6982, the National Tripartite Council also referred to as the Sugar Tripartite Council (STC) was created as the advisory body of the Department of Labor and Employment as regards the effective implementation of the social and economic programs for the workers in the sugar industry. (Edwin G. Ombion)