PH may import sugar around October if supply runs out

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines may import sugar around October should the supply be depleted, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said in his vlog posted on Sunday.

But the amount would be smaller than the proposed 300,000 metric tons of sugar that he earlier rejected.

“Maybe around October, the supply here in the Philippines may be close to being used up. So we may need to import, but only a little,” Marcos said in Filipino. “It’s not as much as 300,000 metric tons they were talking about before. Around 150,000 [metric] tons would be enough for the whole year. That’s why I think we were able to lessen the importation of sugar.”

Marcos had earlier rejected Sugar Order No. 4 of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) that supposedly authorized the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar.

The order, which was uploaded on the SRA website, showed then-Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian signing on behalf of Marcos.

Hours later, the Palace denied having anything to do with the document, saying Marcos rejected the proposal to import more sugar.

Sebastian apologized and resigned as the investigation over the case continues.

In his vlog on Sunday, Marcos said: “I studied the available supply of sugar here in the Philippines, why there’s a need to import. I concluded that there’s enough supply of sugar.  So I said why not prioritize this because that came from the Philippines and we have also imported before. So before we import more sugar, we should use our supply here first.”

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