President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. had no objection to the proposed importation of 300,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar that is why he was surprised when he disowned the release of Sugar Order No. 4, Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian said at the continuation of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the controversy on Tuesday, August 30.
Former Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica supported Sebastian’s narrative, saying Marcos—who concurrently heads the Department of Agriculture DA)—and also Executive Secretary Victor “Vic” Rodriguez, backed the proposal.
“There were two things that the President want to act fast, your Honor. Which he expressed during that meeting, that is one, redirect classification, we have to do it as soon as possible, reclassification from reserved to domestic use of sugar. Second, the need to augment our local supplies through importation,” Sebastian said, describing the tone of the Aug. 1, 2022 meeting in Malacañang to Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Aside from them, Sebastian said there were other agriculture officials who were present during the meeting, including the undersecretary for policy and planning, the president of Land Bank of the Philippines, and the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) administrator.
“There were no objections to the importation program, your honor, or any reservation,” added Sebastian.
In a follow-up meeting on August 4, Sebastian also detailed that he received a feedback from Serafica saying he was being instructed to draft the sugar importation program by the President.
“And if you are instructed to draft the sugar importation program, your honor, that means they are already aware that there's an importation that has been planned or even the number, that is supposed to be imported, already (means) they've already been informed about it,” he pointed out.
Asked by Hontiveros if the need to augment local sugar supplies was explicitly said by the President, Sebastian said “yes.”
“Yes, your honor. That was one of the part of the briefing SRA Administrator gave and also the President agreed there's a need to consider that. In fact, Administrator Serafica was given instruction to start preparing a sugar importation program,” he explained.
Sebastian also affirmed that the President actually approved the 300,000 MT sugar importation via referendum and was later on surprised when Marcos disapproved of his action and the Board’s approval of SO No. 4.
The SRA later on recalled the publication of the Sugar Order No. 4.
“I informed the President that we have already approved the 300,000 MT sugar importation and just like in my affidavit, I was surprised that he was not in agreement, your honor,” Sebastian said.
Serafica, on the other hand, clarified that the volume of the sugar to be imported was not discussed during the August 1 meeting, but it was discussed during the August 4 meeting.
“When we presented the facts of the situation on the tightness of the supply and the rising prices prevailing in the market, the stakeholders were requested to submit on or before August 3 their recommendations,” Serafica said.
“When we presented the supply and demand, it was indicated in the slides, in the presentation of the regulations department during that time, and they saw the deficit, the estimated deficit, towards the end of August,” he further said.
“Likewise - this concerns about the raw sugar, and likewise on the refined sugar - the SRA has complete data on the facts of our average demand for the last three crop years as far as raw sugar is concerned and as far as refined sugar is concerned. They realized upon seeing all of these, they recommended - almost the same - the 300,000 MT,” the former SRA official said.
To this, Hontiveros said she is all the more “mystified” over Malacañang’s order to recall the issuance of SO No. 4.
“Kasi (Because) why the subterfuge? Nalaman ba talaga sa website lang o sinabi personally (Did they only know about it through the website or they said it personally)? Why send signals na pabor sa importasyon, hindi nag-object then babawiin pala (that they are in favor of importation, they did not object, then they later on recalled the order), despite the fact of this near unanimity among stakeholders,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros then urged Sen. Francis Tolentino, chair of the Senate blue ribbon panel, to invite Rodriguez, who skipped today’s probe, to appear in the next hearing to further shed light on the issue.