Congress to act on sugar coops’ woes

NEGROS Occidental 4th district Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer is reportedly set to stage an “academic” protest at the House of Representatives as per his promise to sugar cooperatives last Sunday even as a Senate hearing was also set October 7 to tackle sugar woes.

Fr. Armando Onion, spokesperson of the Various Exempted Sugar Cooperatives (VESC) and chair of the Ma-ao Parish Multi-Purpose Cooperative Inc. (MPMPC), told Sun.Star that Ferrer personally met with him at a hotel in Bacolod City and manifested his support to the sugar cooperatives over the latter’s ongoing tiff with the Bureau of Internal Revenue concerning the advance value added tax imposition.

“He promised to hold a protest in the House regarding the sugar plight of the cooperatives,” Onion said.

VESC, through Ferrer, also sent Wednesday a letter-appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who likewise met with leaders of the sugar industry headed by the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters Association.

The letter sought the immediate relief of BIR Director Rodita Galanto and pushed for tax exemption which Onion said had already been availed of by the cooperatives since the late 80s.

Galanto, meanwhile, said she is ready to vacate her post anytime “if the president so desires.”

“If it happens, all BIR people will know that if you are doing good for this country, you will (still) be ousted. This is not my loss but the loss of Negros because they want a corrupt BIR who will just be at their back. The national office knows that I’m a working director. If I will be removed, then BIR now has reason to believe that we are at the mercy of politicians and Bacolod is not ready to change. I am ready to step down.”

Onion said the BIR’s “act of harassment” threatens not only the cooperatives but the entire sugar industry.

“Its whimsical actions are endangering the stability and existence of the sugar industry,” Onion said, claiming that Galanto’s actions “reflect her desire to window-dress her collection performance in blatant defiance of the law that threatens the existence of the sugar industry.”

The cooperatives that availed of the tax exemptions were beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp), Onion added.

“The sugar industry is bracing for the challenges in 2010 and onwards. Almost five million Filipinos are dependent on the industry. The government has done its share through the institution of exemptions to the cooperative system,” he added in the letter.

Onion also scored Galanto for being “selective”, which he claimed is creating a division among the sugar cooperatives. “Why does the BIR single out the sugar cooperatives?”

source:sunstar