Bill to dump seized sugar in sea filed

Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) yesterday said he has filed a bill requiring that all confiscated smuggled sugar in the country be dumped into the sea.

House Bill 5064, which he filed Thursday, will be known as the “Disposition of Confiscated Smuggled Sugar in Bureau of Customs Custody Act of 2008,” he said.

“Government should send a strong signal that smuggling does not pay,” he said.

The act would prohibit the sale of confiscated smuggled sugar in Bureau of Customs custody in the domestic market or their export to any foreign country.

No other method of disposition of confiscated smuggled sugar in customs custody should be allowed except dumping them into the sea in the presence of witnesses consisting of representatives from the Sugar Regulatory Administration, sugar industry and other parties concerned, the bill states.

Under existing laws smuggled sugar confiscated by the Bureau of Customs are immediately classified by the SRA as “D” or World Market Sugar so that it can be shipped out of the country, Lacson said.

The Bureau of Customs then conducts a public action among sugar traders and exporters who then purportedly ship the sugar out of the country, he said.

Since the sugar classified as “D” it is also bidded out at world sugar prices that are just one-third of domestic sugar prices, Lacson said.

Often, it is the smugglers themselves, in connivance with unscrupulous sugar traders and exporters, who buy the confiscated smuggled sugar from the Bureau of Customs auction, the solon charged.

“The smuggled sugar eventually finds its way to its intended destination -- the domestic market where retail prices are almost four times that of the world market,” Lacson added.

Regardless of efforts made by the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines to ensure that domestic sugar prices remain fair to both the consumers and the producers, Lacson said domestic sugar prices remain unstable.

“Domestic sugar demand has stagnated for the past decade despite the almost double increase in population. There is a large gap between actual demand versus the reported demand for sugar. Sugar smuggling fills the gap,” Lacson said.

Sugar smuggling not only deprives the government of revenues, it also affects domestic sugar prices to the detriment of Philippine sugar producers, and endangers the livelihood of five million Filipinos who are dependent on the industry for their living, he pointed out.

The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters headed by Enrique Rojas had earlier called on Negros solons to push for a bill requiring the dumping of confiscated smuggled sugar into the sea.*CPG

source:visayandailystar