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Sunday, February 5, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) chief Anna Rosario Paner asked sugar industry stakeholders to give the Sugar Board “more time” to decide on the issue of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) importation.
Industry leaders and multi-sectoral groups have been protesting the importation of HFCS, which they said is killing the sugar industry.
HFCS, a sweetener made from corn starch, is a common sweetener in sodas and fruit-flavored drinks. It has become a popular substitute to sugar from sugarcane.
Some 100 agrarian reform beneficiaries and farmers staged a protest rally in front of a soda bottling plant in Barangay Mansilingan here on Friday.
At least 200 members of the Kilusang Pagbabago-Negros Island Region (KP-NIR), Sugar Solidarity Against High Fructose Corn Syrup (SSA-HFCS), and other multi-sectoral groups also joined the rally outside of the SRA office.
Paner, who met with protesters at the SRA office here, said the agency is currently having a series of consultations, thus they are asking for understanding from all stakeholders and allow them to deliberate the matter in a few more weeks.
Paner and three other members of the Sugar Board, including Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol as chair, are set to meet in Ormoc City, Leyte on Feb. 17.
“If you ask me of SRA’s stand, let me defer it first to the Board. I cannot preempt the position of the other members,” she said, adding that by that time, there can be resolution on the matter.
Whatever the result of the deliberation, it would be a milestone for the sugar industry, Paner said.
“We will implement whatever the directive of the Board is, then certain rules will be spelled out for everybody’s guidance,” the SRA chief added. (PNA)
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