President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will reorganize the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) "before the end of this week," following the foiled illegal sugar importation order.
Due to the pressing concerns over the sugar shortage and surging prices of the commodity, Marcos said the reorganization of the SRA, which has lost some of its executives, must be done soon.
"So what we are going to do is that we are going to reorganize the SRA and as soon as that’s done — that should be done this week, before the end of this week," the President said on the sidelines of the Pinalakas vaccination campaign rollout in Manila on Wednesday, Aug. 17.
Three executives, including an Agriculture undersecretary have stepped down from their posts since last week amid the sugar importation issue.
SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica, Board Member and miller’s representative Roland Beltran, and Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian have tendered their resignation on separate dates since the unauthorized order to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar was discovered last week.
The President said he has left the investigation over the incident to the House and Senate in order for him to focus on resolving the sugar problem in the country, which, he said, is starting to threaten jobs.
"Actually, ipinaubaya namin ang imbestigasyon sa House, sa legislature and even the Senate. Dahil ang iniintindi ko lang talaga is that hindi tayo tumagal na mayroon tayong shortage ng sugar, lalong-lalo na para sa mga industrial consumer (We have actually left the investigation on the hands of the House and Senate. Because we are focusing on preventing the shortage of sugar to worsen, especially for the industrial consumers)," Marcos said.
"Because right now, they are starting to cut down the days of the week na nagtatrabaho (of work) and we are very worried of course about jobs. So ‘yun ang iniintindi ko talaga right now (So, that's what I am dealing with right now)," he added.
In order to do this, he has to reorganize the SRA first before coming to an agreement with the industrial consumers, planters, millers, and suppliers of sugar so that "whatever supply we have must be released to the market."
If the remaining supply will still not be enough, the President said "we will be forced to make an importation."
The Chief Executive,who also heads the Department of Agriculture in a concurrent capacity, also said that they are now negotiating with traders to lower the price of sugar to P70 per kilo.
"We're getting there," he said.