BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Local labor group General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) is hoping that the newly designated chief of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), Pablo Luis Azcona, will stop direct sugar importation espoused by food and beverage companies.
GAWA secretary-general Wennie Sancho said such is a death blow to the local sugar industry.
The influx of imported sugar weakens local production, he explained.
Sancho also said five million people are directly and indirectly dependent on the local sugar industry.
“This should not be taken for granted,” he said.
Sancho hopes the SRA would be circumspect in regulating and allocating sugar.
On Friday, April 28, Azcona was appointed as acting SRA administrator.
He previously served as SRA board member representing sugar planters.
He took over from former SRA officer-in-charge, Department of Agriculture senior undersecretary Domingo Panganiban who temporarily headed the agency after the previous administrator, David John Thaddeus Alba, stepped down on April 16./PN
