Senator Imee Marcos warned that the government is about to break the law by resuming the importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar despite two court orders to suspend it.
Marcos, chair of the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, said the Sugar Regulatory Agency (SRA) issued Memorandum Circular 11 on Tuesday announcing that demand for sugar imports had resumed.
“This defies two temporary restraining orders (TROs) issued by the Sagay and Himamaylan regional trial courts in Negros Occidental earlier this year,” Marcos explained.
The Sagay’s February court order specifically directs the SRA to “maintain the status quo to be effective until the case is closed unless earlier lifted.”
Marcos added that the SRA circular’s exclusion of Western Visayas from eligibility for import applications was “a circumvention of the court orders coming from the region.”
Lawsuits are still pending to resolve the conflict between the government and two leading sugar plantation groups seeking TRO – the Unified Sugar Federation (Unifed) and the Association of Rural Sugar Growers Inc.
“The brazen attempt to import sugar despite its suspension points to a real midnight deal before the present administration steps down from office at the end of June,” Marcos said, citing that the next court hearing has yet to take place on June 28.
Unifed told Marcos’s office on Wednesday that it was poised to file cases against Agriculture Secretary William Dar and SRA chief Hermenegildo Serafica for “contempt of court.”
Both government officials contend that a sugar shortage could occur later this year due to the damage wrought by Typhoon Odette last December, even as sugar planters remain confident of being able to meet the country’s sugar needs.
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