Gov't to maintain 2-month sugar buffer stock — Marcos

A two-month buffer stock of sugar will be maintained in order to avoid a shortage of the commodity in the country, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said.

Marcos stated this in an interview onboard PR001 en route to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Sunday, Jan. 15.

“We will maintain from now on, in sugar, a two-month buffer stock... so that people will know hindi tayo magkaka-shortage dahil lagi tayong mayroon (we won't have a shortage because we have a) two-month na buffer stock which I will maintain," he said.

The President also stressed the need to improve local production of agricultural goods and stop smuggling of agricultural goods, revealing that the government has "very good ideas" in doing so.

He said the government should help the sugar industry and onion growers.

"The most important facet of this whole problem is production. We have to go back to the sugar industry. We have to go back to the onion growers and help them para magkaroon tayo ng production, hindi na tayo kailangan mag-import (so we can have production, and we don't need to import),” Marcos said.

He lamented how the country is so used to importation instead of enhancing the production side.

“Diyan tayo naipit eh. Nasanay tayo masyado sa import. So import lang tayo nang import, hindi natin inaayos yung production side (We were caught up there. We were so used to importation. So we just keep importing that we were not able to fix our production),” Marcos said.

“Kaya nung tinamaan tayo ng pandemya, ramdam na ramdam natin (So, when the pandemic hit us, we felt its impact). Same thing like now, when we lost supply from abroad or when we take supplies from abroad, yung inflationary forces doon nadadala rito sa Pilipinas (the inflationary forces are being brought here to the Philippines),” the President pointed out.

He also said that the government was forced to import onions to ensure sufficient supply as well as stabilize prices in the market.

He also stressed that aside from low production, smuggling is also among the top culprits of dwindling supply of agricultural goods.

“The smuggling, yun talaga... kailangan talagang i-solve yun. Masyadong laganap ang smuggling dito sa Pilipinas kahit na ano ini-smuggle eh (we really need to solve that. Smuggling in the Philippines is so rampant that anything are being smuggled). So we have to really look into that and we have some very good ideas,” he said.

According to Marcos, there are strategies against smuggling implemented by other countries that the Philippines can adopt.

He noted that the digitalization of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) “is going to be an important part of that.”

In a meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) last week, the President said the present system isn’t working and that government agencies must do something to decisively address rampant smuggling.

The chief executive ordered reform in the bureaucracy to curb smuggling, lower logistics costs, and ensure the ease of doing business as his government works to prop up investments and business activities in the country.