Bongbong Marcos did not oppose proposed sugar importation program, says DA execs

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did not object to the proposed sugar importation program, officials revealed Tuesday.

During the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing, Senator Risa Hontiveros asked former Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian and former Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica if Marcos and Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez supported the proposed importation.

The SRA is an attached unit of the Department of Agriculture (DA), which is headed by Marcos in a concurrent capacity.

According to Sebastian, “There were no objections to the importation program, Your Honor. I did not hear any objection or any reservation.”

“I did not hear any objection, Your Honor, at that point,” Serafica, for his part, said.

Sebastian even recalled that Marcos wanted the DA to reclassify sugar use from reserve to domestic use, and augment the local supply through importation.

He added that Marcos directed Serafica to craft a sugar importation program.

“If you are instructed to draft the sugar importation program, Your Honor, that means you’re already aware that there is an importation that has been planned or even the number that is supposed to be imported, they have already been informed about it,” Sebastian explained.

The undersecretary, who is under preventive suspension, shared that he personally informed Marcos about the development of the importation.

“I informed the President that we have already approved the 300,000 metric tons sugar importation,” said Sebastian.

The hearing on the sugar importation fiasco stemmed from the publication of Sugar Order No. 4 on the SRA website. Sugar Order No. 4 stated the approval of the importation of 300,000 MT of sugar.

But Marcos disowned the order with Malacañang saying the President rejected the proposal to import additional 300,000 MT of sugar.

KGA