By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson expressed support for the proposal by Senator Cynthia Villar to establish a National Sugar Program. She introduced the plan after the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) failed to fully utilize the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA), which is worth P2 billion annually.
“The sugar industry cannot manage the P2 billion budget mandated by the SIDA Law,” the governor stated. “Obviously, there is something wrong.”
During her visit to the province last week, Villar said she plans to amend SIDA in order to make the sugar industry competitive.
Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, was in La Carlota City last Friday with Assistant Finance Secretary Antonio Joselito Lambino to assess the state of the sugar industry.
“We need to be competitive,” she stressed. “We have to compete with other sugar-producing countries.”
Last November, Villar blamed the SRA after the agency provided import permits to traders instead of food processors.
“Why give the import permits to the traders?” the senator asked. “That would result [in] cartels and high prices of sugar.”
“It [was] the wrong move of the SRA,” she added. “They are supposed to protect the sugar industry.”
Villar noted, imported sugar, particularly from Thailand, is cheaper because the cost of production is lower./DGB, WDJ