Bacolod City – The House Committees on Good Government and Public Accountability, as well as Agriculture and Food, will start in-depth probe on the unauthorized signing of a sugar importation order to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar, according to Abang Lingkod Rep. Stephen Joseph Paduano.
Paduano, who is a member of the committee on Agriculture and Food member, said the two House committees have already sent invitations to the Bureau of Customs, former Sugar Regulatory Administration officials who signed Sugar Order Number 4, industrial users, representatives of the consumers, sugar producers and millers, among other sugar industry stakeholders.
He said the two committees wants to get into the bottom of sugar importation, and to be updated on discovery of suspected hoarded sugar during series of surprise inspections on warehouses in Luzon and Mindanao.
Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED), is also calling on the government to also check the sugar warehouses and mills in Bacolod City and entire Negros Occidental.
Lamata said the government agencies should not be picky as the consumers are suffering due to the high cost of sugar being sold in the markets. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star, photo courtesy of The Daily Guardian)