BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The first batch of migrant sugar workers or sacadas from Antique province arrived in Negros Occidental on Sept. 3, to signal the start of the milling season.
They will work in sugarcane farms until March next year, said Negros Occidental’s Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson.
“The 33 sacadas were swabbed for COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) and will be quarantined in the farm where they will be employed until their test results are out,” Lacson said.
About 4,000 sugarcane workers are expected to arrive in the province.
Sugar planters hire workers from other provinces, Lacson said, because “it is very difficult to hire cane cutters in Negros Occidental.”
But there are health protocols to follow. They must undergo reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test (RT-PCR); part of the cost is shouldered by the farm owners.
In Antique, the provincial government listed over 200 sacadas set to leave for Negros Occidental on Sept. 10.
Antique Sacada Desk in-charge Randy Ardeño said five contractors are processing the documents of the workers. These included their registration with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the S-PaSS online travel management system, membership with the Social Security System (SSS), and identification cards.
The sacadas will also undergo RT-PCR tests before they will be brought to the seaport in Dumangas, Iloilo to board a vessel going to Negros Occidental. The cost of the swab test will be shouldered by sugar planters who contracted their services.
“For other contractors, they are being advised to coordinate with the Sacada Desk so we could process the IDs of the sacadas and their S-Pass (documents),” he said.
Last year, 2,232 Antiqueño sacadas were hired by 63 contractors.
The Antique provincial government created a system for the legal deployment of sacadas last year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic./PN
