Sugar industry’s slow death
Sugar shortage in the country will remain because there’s no revitalization effort both from government and private sectors. The sugar industry experienced slow death and no encouragement is seen from government
Previous administrations gave insufficient attention to the sugar industry. Now there’s shortage, smuggling and importation attended by corruption. A report says the international price of sugar is P22 per kilo and locally the prices range from P70 to P100 per kilo. What is the term here? Crisis. Companies that depend on sugar, like those bottling companies may either locate to neighboring countries resulting in layoffs of thousands of workers or reduce production, which would also mean decreased manpower.
In my youth in Porac, there were times when my mom would send me to Apung Pepang whose store was a stone’s throw away from our house and I could ask for a cup of free sugar. One ganta of brown sugar then was 10 centavos. There were some kin like Marciano Dizon aka Tatang Ciano who gifted our family one sack of brown sugar each year. During President Diosdado Macapagal’s administration, Dizon became the chairman of Philippine Sugar Institute, the forerunner of the Sugar Regulatory Board.
The town‘s farmland then was mostly cane fields and the prominent sugar planters were Apung Bentong de Mesa, a cousin of my father and Primo David, husband of Servillana Lumanlan, a niece of my mom. The Pampanga Sugar Mill (Pasumil) was located in Del Carmen, Florida Blanca and was milling the harvested canes. The early plantadores were the Guanzons, Dimsons, Guecos, Vitugs and many others. The mill, financed by American investors, saw its birth in 1917. During milling season hundreds of cargo trucks made a long queue waiting for their turn to be weighed. Sugar was also the main export crop and mostly shipped to the United States because of the quota allocation.
The Porac-Gumain river wasn’t silted unlike today and continued to flow passing through Florida Blanca town. During those years it was by my estimate to be 15 feet deep and all the kids in town learned to swim there. Farmers depended largely on it. Palay, vegetables grew on the vast agricultural lands but a larger portion was mostly planted to sugar cane. Hectares after hectares dotted the roads going to Florida Blanca. In many towns of the province, like San Fernando, Magalang and Mabalacat the farmlands were mostly planted to sugar cane. Farmers in those years were simply happy and contented with whatever decent incomes they get from the soil.
The Pampanga Sugar Development Company (Pasudeco) came a year after Pasumil. It was purely Filipino capital and was incorporated in 1918. It started processing in 1921. The seniors among us will remember those two iconic chimneys. If smoke was coming out of those chimneys, it would mean the milling season and plantadores were happy. They occupied the front seat in the cockpit and the two or three front rows in churches were reserved for their families. They were the yesterday’s tycoons.
The Chinese taipans came later and edged the plantadores. The taipans like Lucio Co of Puregold, Lucio Tan of LT Companies, the late John Gokongwei, the late Henry Sy of SM and Andrew Tan of Megaworld Corporation started as small merchants before they landed in Forbes Magazine’s first 500 richest list. Pasudeco was sold to Andrew Tan and currently is being developed as a mixed-use estate. Many sugar planters sold their farmlands and became housing subdivisions. Others diverted into other business enterprises but weren’t as successful as the Chinese.
Sugar shortage in the country will remain because there’s no revitalization effort both from government and private sectors. The sugar industry experienced slow death and no encouragement is seen from government. The country used to export tons and tons and now we import tons and tons. Sad.