Where are the sugar cane fields that used to dot both sides of most roads in almost every towns in Pampanga? Gone! Today, we see buildings, houses and commercial establishments. Insufficient attention was given the sugar industry in recent years. Now the shortage,the quota allocation for the United States market can’t be met.
In my youth in Porac, I recall there were times when my mom will send me to Apung Pepang whose store was a stone throw away from our house and I can ask for a free cup of sugar. One ganta of brown sugar then was ten centavos. There were some kins like Marciano Dizon aka Tatang Ciano who gifted our family one sack of brown sugar each year. During President Diosdado Macapagal’s administration Dizon became Philippine Sugar Industry chairman, the forerunner of Sugar Regulatory Board. The town‘s farmland then was mostly cane fields and the prominent sugar planters were Apung Bentong de Mesa, a cousin of my father and Primo David ,husband of Servillana Lumanlan,a niece of my mom.
Pampanga Sugar Mill (PASUMIL) was located in Del Carmen, Florida Blanca and was milling the harvested canes. The early plantadores were the Guanzons, Dimsons, Guecos, Vitugs and many others. The mill saw its birth in 1917 and financed by American investors. During milling season hundreds of cargo trucks made a long queue waiting for their turn to be weighed. It was also the main export crop and mostly shipped to the United States because of the quota allocation.
The Porac- Gumain river wasn’t silted unlike today and continued to flow passing through Florida Blanca town. During those years it was by my estimate to be 15 feet deep and all the kids in town learned to swim there. Farmers depended largely from it. Palay, vegetables grew on the vast agricultural lands but larger area was mostly planted to sugar cane. Hectares after hectares were on both sides of the roads going to Florida Blanca. In many towns of the province, like San Fernando, Magalang and Mabalacat the farmlands were mostly planted to sugar cane. Farmers in those years were simply happy and contented in whatever decent incomes they get from the soil.
The Pampanga Sugar Development Company ( PASUDECO) came a year after PASUMIL. It was purely Filipino capital and was incorporated in 1918. It started processing in 1921. The seniors among us will remember those two iconic chimneys. If smoke was coming out of those chimneys, it would mean the milling season and plantadores were happy. They occupied the front seat in the cockpit and the two or three front rows in churches were reserved for their families. They were the yesterday’s tycoons.
The Chinese taipans now came later and edged the plantadores. The taipans like Lucio Co of Puregold, Lucio Tan of LT Companies, the late John Gokongwei, the late Henry Sy of SM and Andrew Tan of Megaworld Corporation started as small merchants before they landed in the Forbes Magazine in the first 500 richest. (PASUDECO) was sold to Andrew Tan and currently is being developed as a mixed-use estate. Many sugar planters sold their farmlands and became housing subdivisions. Others diverted into other business enterprises but weren’t successful as the Chinese.
Sugar shortage in the country will remain because there’s no revitalization effort both from government and private sectors. The sugar industry experienced slow death and no encouragement is seen from government. The country used to export tons and tons and now we import tons and tons. Sad.
