“I ALREADY said my piece.”
This was what Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer said Friday, August 12, as he finally put a stop to the issue between him and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board Member Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr.
“I already said what I want to say to him (Valderrama)... it's finished,” Ferrer said.
On Thursday, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said that the issue between Ferrer and Valderrama should not be discussed anymore.
Lacson said Valderrama has already made an open letter recognizing the authority of the President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
He emphasized that it is not good to say that there is brewing disagreement sugar stakeholders in Negros Occidental.
The governor urged everyone to be united and solid for the sugar industry and that the move of the President to appoint Valderrama is gearing towards unity.
Ferrer has questioned Valderrama’s appointment as he disclosed that he is working out for the revocation of the latter’s appointment as member of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board representing the planters.
But Valderrama, in an open letter to the sugarcane industry and its stakeholders Wednesday, August 10, said he is humbled and challenged by the opportunity given to him by the president to serve as planters’ representative to the Sugar Board.
Meanwhile, Ferrer has refrained from commenting on the issue being faced by SRA officials led by its SRA Board Vice Chairperson Hermenegildo Serafica.
He said that there is already an ongoing investigation, so for delicadeza purposes, he will say anything anymore.
In a briefing Thursday, August 11, Press Secretary Rose Beatrix "Trixie" Cruz-Angeles said Malacañang has launched an investigation of the "unauthorized" meeting of the SRA where a resolution was approved.
She said the resolution aimed at importing 300,000 metric tons of sugar, a decision which was later rejected by the president.
The SRA cannot be convened without the President, who also heads the Department of Agriculture (DA), making the resolution "illegal,” Cruz-Angeles said.
She said the document in question, Sugar Order 4, appeared to have been signed for and on behalf of the President by Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian.
Aside from Serafica and Valderrama, millers' representative to the board Roland Beltran was also a signatory to the document being in question.