BACOLOD CITY – Claiming that he abandoned his duty to champion the voices of small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries, the NACUSIP Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Council and its allied organizations has demanded the removal of David Sanson from the Sugar Regulatory Administration Sugar Board.
In a statement, the group of agrarian reform beneficiaries expressed not just grave concern, but outright indignation over his recent pronouncements of Sanson on the increase in sugar mill gate prices.
They claimed that Sanson’s statements are a blatant attempt to legitimize an exportation program that was forced upon them, without any semblance of consultation or transparency, resulting in manipulated price hikes that deliberately exclude and exploit the very backbone of the sugar industry, the workers and farmers whom the SRA is supposed to defend.
Sanson, who represents the planters in the SRA Sugar Board, in a statement, earlier called on sugar farmers, particularly the federations to unite and work for a long term solution that will address production, pricing, marketing, and other challenges facing the sugar industry, as millgate sugar prices have indicated an upward trend.
Last week’s bidding price has gone up to P2,300-P2,400 per 50Lkg with molasses breaching P9,000 per ton after more than three months of being in the P2,100-P2,200 level, according to Sanson.
In a statement, the Sugar Council, composed of several sugar planters groups, also dismissed the recent P20 to P30 average increase in mill gate prices as insignificant, compared to the P300 to P500 average weekly decrease from the previous crop year’s mill gate prices.
When summed up, those year-on-year negative variances in weekly mill gate price represents billions of foregone revenue, the council said. (Gilbert Bayoran via tvds)