Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said he will be speaking with festival officials after United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (Unifed) President Manuel Lamata called for a ban of Coca-Cola products at Bacolaodiat Festival 2018, scheduled to take place from February 15 to 18.

The mayor emphasized he is “pro-sugar industry.”

Incidentally, Coca-Cola products were banned at this year’s MassKara Festival, with Festival Director Eli Tajanlangit stating, “No Coca-Cola product or promotional material or activity will be allowed in all of our festival sites.”

Last Sunday, Lamata said he urged the mayor to ban the product for the company’s continued use of high fructose corn syrup.

Back in September, the Unifed official said Coca-Cola had yet to fulfill their promise of purchasing more local sugar, noting, of the eight million bags of local sugar the company pledged to purchase, they bought one million./DGB, WDJ