The Bureau of Customs (BOC) said Friday, August 26, that it has conducted s surprise inspection of at least two warehouses of sugar in Bukidnon as part of the government’s "relentless" campaign against supply hoarding and to bring down the price of such commodity, but the company executives of the raided depots were assailing the agency’s allegations against them.
Personnel from BOC Port of Cagayan de Oro inspected a warehouse of Crystal Sugar Company Inc. in Brgy. North Poblacion in Maramag town last August 23 where they found a total of 466,142 bags of sugar; and BUSCO Sugar Milling Corporation in Brgy. Butong in Quezon town on August 24 which contained 110,674 bags of sugar.
The Customs operatives were armed with a Letter of Authority (LOA) and a Mission Order (MO) which legitimized the surprise inspection, and were accompanied by personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
“The two sugar mill companies assured authorities that their products are locally produced and are serving the Northern Mindanao and Davao Region markets,” the BOC said.
However, Javier Sagarbarria, Vice President for Operations and Resident Manager of the Crystal Sugar Company Inc., decried the government’s allegations against their company, saying these can mean the closure of their warehouse.
He told the BOC that the milling company can produce almost three million bags of sugar per year with the help of several planter associations in the province, whose sugar products were processed in their company.
According to Sagarbarria, Crystal produces 66 percent of the yields in their favor while 34 percent goes to the miller.
“We can prove to you that Crystal is not hoarding even a single bag,” he said.
Meanwhile, BUSCO officer-in-charge Ellen Villaflora said their warehouse contained 110,674 bags when it was inspected by Customs officers, including 26,000 bags which are raw while the rest were already refined.
“Traders have been withdrawing 10,000 to 15,000 bags per day,” she said, emphasizing that they are not engaged in supply hoarding.
“The companies, however, will still be required to produce the necessary documents to support their claims of being local sugar producers, including the submission of their respective Sugar Monitoring System Reports,” the BOC stated.
The intensified campaign against sugar hoarding stemmed from the alleged illegal issuance of Sugar Order No. 4 which would have resulted in the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar to address the shortage in the country.
The order was blocked by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who also sits as the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture.