By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The direct sugar importation being pushed by five beverage companies will be a recipe for disaster if President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. approves their request, a local group warns.

Save the Sugar Industry Movement (SAVE-SIM) lead convenor Wennie Sancho said the call of the five industrial companies was motivated by their excessive corporate greed for profit at the expense of the stakeholders of the sugar industry, particularly the small producers.

Sancho said the marginal direct sugar importation would be pernicious and almost “an insane blunder that would kill the goose that lays the golden egg.”

“Let us not allow wicked principles, avowed and acted upon in the quest for insatiable greed by companies owned and controlled by foreigners,” Sancho said.

He further stated that any direct importation of the commodity is a form of economic sabotage and SAVE-SIM vehemently opposes and condemns the scheme.

“The approval of this request would serve as the final nail that would seal the coffin of a dead sugar industry,” he said.

Earlier, beverage companies — Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc., Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc., ARC Refreshments Corporation, Nestle Philippines, Alaska Milk Corporation, and Monde Nissin — forwarded a request to Marcos allowing industrial users to directly import premium refined sugar.

United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (UNIFED) President Manuel Lamata asserted that beverage companies should only buy locally-produced sugar.

According to Lamata, the 440,000 metric tons under Sugar Order No. 6 are intended for local consumers only.

Industrial users have nothing to do with it, so they have to buy locally-produced sugar because their products which are locally-made are also being consumed by local consumers, the UNIFED president said.

“Why should they be given the privilege to buy cheaper sugar from Thailand which is subsidized by the government and sell their products to us at a high price,” Lamata asked./DGB, WDJ