House probe on sugar importation mess formally sought

A congressional inquiry on the controversial Sugar Order 4 (SO 4), which would have allowed the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar, has been formally sought in the House of Representatives.

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan sought the investigation via House Resolution 259 in light of SO 4 being signed by then-Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian without the authority of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who sits as secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Malacañang has described the order as "illegal." 

"There is a need to conduct an in-depth investigation on this botched attempt to import sugar to identify all persons who connived with Undersecretary Sebastian for this unauthorized sugar importation order and for them to answer possible criminal charges," Libanan said in his resolution.

Sebastian and two other officials -- Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) administrator Hermenegildo Serafica and Sugar Board member Atty. Roland Beltran -- have since resigned amid the issue.

Libanan said that the previous leadership of the DA, the mother agency of SRA, failed to capacitate local production and instead resorted on importation not only of sugar but also of rice, pork, fish and vegetable products.

He added that it is now imperative for the government to formulate and issue a clear-cut policy on importation of agricultural products especially during harvest season.

Bulacan Representative Florida Robes, who chairs the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, earlier announced that the House inquiry on SO 4 has been moved to August 22 pending the release on rules regarding its planned motu propio investigation.

Before Libanan filed the resolution, the agencies involved in formulating SO 4 already faced the House panel to brief lawmakers on what transpired.

At the Senate, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, in a privilege speech on Monday, called on the Senate blue ribbon committee to investigate the issuance of SO 4.

Third-party vetting

In a separate statement, House Deputy Speaker Ralph Recto said sugar importation should be based on science and subject to review outside of SRA and DA.

"Finding the 'sweet spot' which will determine the right volume of sugar imports that will both protect producers and consumers must be solely based on science and insulated from lobby and politics," he said.

"It should be multi-agency dapat. Is NEDA, for example, on board in determining production and consumption outlook?" Recto added, referring to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

Subjecting sugar data to third-party vetting, Recto said, will strengthen the integrity of projections made and will hush down unfair claims of data manipulation.

Recto said instances in the past when the computation of the annual per capita consumption of a commodity to justify jacking up import volume should not happen again.

"What I am proposing is that a group of experts, from the academe perhaps, should take a second look at our food import projections, not just on sugar, but on all commodities, so that we will not be importing more than what is needed," Recto said.

Under Section 9 of the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2015, the SRA is mandated to establish a "supply chain monitoring system” that will track volume of “sugarcane at farms to refined sugar at stores."

To ensure sufficiency of supply, SRA's monitoring covers registered firms from distilleries that use sugarcane, to warehouses of sugar importers, to sugar stockpiles of food processors. —KBK, GMA News