Ex-SRA chief Serafica cited for contempt, to be detained for 15 days
A copy of Malacañang’s acceptance letter regarding the resignation of Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Hermenegildo Serafica shared by Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez to Palace reporters.
BACOLOD CITY — A former chief of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) was cited for indirect contempt of court for issuing a memorandum allowing the importation of sugar despite a writ of preliminary injunction issued by the court.
Hermenegildo Serafica was ordered imprisoned for 15 days and to pay a fine of P30,000 by Judge Walter Zorilla of the Regional Trial Court Branch 55 in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental on Monday, September 26.
The judge on March 2, 2022, issued a writ of preliminary injunction directing the SRA, its agents and representatives or persons acting on its behalf to cease and desist from implementing the sugar importation program embodied under Sugar Order No 3, Series of 2021-2022.
On May 4, 2022, Serafica issued SRA Memorandum Circular No. 11, Series of 2021-2022, allowing the importation of 200,000 MT of sugar in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, except in Region 6, the judge said.
“Serafica willfully disregarded and manifestly disobeyed the writ of preliminary injunction when he issued memorandum circular 11,” the judge said.
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