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BY RANIE AZUE
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BACOLOD City – Without an official confirmation on Hermenigildo Serafica’s appointment as the new head of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), the agency’s fate remains uncertain, said Negros Occidental vice governor Jose Eugenio Lacson.
Lacson hopes SRA will “survive” given its possible abolition, as earlier pronounced by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Malacañang has yet to release any confirmation on Serafica’s appointment, according to Lacson.
Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol had also zipped his mouth regarding the issue.
Lacson said SRA’s abolition will do “nothing good” to the sugar industry.
“The SRA has been functioning for so many years already,” said Lacson. “It has its ups and downs but it is still best to maintain the agency’s operation. It administers the affairs of the sugar industry.”
Duterte wanted to abolish the SRA after learning that former SRA head Anna Rosario Paner had hired consultants who allegedly earned as much as P200,000 monthly.
Duterte said this was the reason behind him firing Paner.
But the General Alliance of Workers Association had raised their concern over the claims that influential groups, who were behind the import of high-fructose corn syrup, lobbied for Paner’s removal in the SRA.
Winnie Sancho, secretary-general of the General Alliance of Workers Association, said if the allegations were true, the sugar industry is in grave danger./PN
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