SRA execs who okayed sugar importation asked to resign

MABALACAT CITY --- The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) has called on all Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) officials who signed a resolution to import sugar without the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to resign from their posts as what Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian just did.

UMA spokesperson John Milton “Butch” Lozande said this is to ensure that they will not influence the ongoing investigation on the mess that they created and out of delicadeza.

Aside from Sebastian, the resolution was also signed by SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica as vice chairman of the SRA board; Roland B. Beltran, the millers' representative to the board; and Aurelio Gerardo J. Valderrama Jr., the planters' representative.

The group said the cartel in the sugar industry should be dismantled.

It is also calling for the punishment of government officials linked to the mess ,especially those belonging to the SRA and Department of Agriculture.

The President, who has not yet issued any statements on the high prices of sugar should also restrain middlemen in overpricing its price.

According to UMA, the government should also directly intervene in sugar pricing and marketing.

Lozande said there should be a genuine agrarian reform to fully dismantle haciendas and distribute land for free to sugar field workers and farmers.

He also urged the government to stop land conversions to non-agricultural use; and provide all rounded support services and subsidies to the sugar industry and agriculture in gen er al .