TUCP TO PBBM: HEED STAKEHOLDERS’ RECOMMENDATIONS LED BY CONFED TO SOLVE SUGAR INDUSTRY CRISIS

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) calls on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. to urgently heed the solutions put forward by the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Inc. (CONFED) and supported by key industry stakeholders, including the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) and the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP-TUCP), to decisively address the deepening crisis in the sugar industry.
“Mr. President, our sugar industry is collapsing as price, yield, and demand for domestic sugar continues to drop. With refineries increasingly underutilized, it is the millers, farmers, planters, and workers who are forced to work fewer days and earn less, bearing the full weight of this social, economic, and financial tragedy, together with their families. What the country needs now is decisive leadership that listens to industry stakeholders and resists the easy but repeatedly failed temptation of over-importation,” stated TUCP Party-list Representative and House Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza.
The sugar industry stakeholders, led by CONFED, are proposing a government-financed domestic sugar buying program to stabilize prices, with stocks to be sold at a modest profit; the reclassification of all remaining imported refined sugar into ‘C’ or reserve sugar; the immediate convening of the National Biofuel Board (NBB) to address distortions in the molasses market; the adoption of an evidence-based and transparent sugar importation policy; and the creation of a technical working group (TWG) with genuine and broad stakeholder representation to operationalize the government-financed buying program.
“We urge the President to lead from the front and meet with sugar industry stakeholders before any new program or order is issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA). Only through genuine consultation can we ensure that farmers, planters, and workers are fully represented and that the country finally adopts a comprehensive sugar policy that strengthens domestic production and moves us away from destructive over-importation,” emphasized Mendoza.