Boycott against Coca-Cola products for allegedly killing the sugar industry

THE boycott of Coca-Cola products to be launched by consumer group, Sugar Watch, in Negros Occidental on June 22 is seen to cut more than 50 percent of the company's gross sales in the province.

Sugar Watch is composed of small sugar farmers, labor organizations, sugar workers and agrarian reform beneficiaries in Negros Occidental.

Junjun Barreta, Sugar Watch spokesman, said the group will spearhead the rally at the Bacolod City Public Plaza to launch the boycott against Coca-Cola products for allegedly killing the sugar industry because of the company’s importation of premixes and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) from genetically modified corn.

The premixes reportedly came from Thailand, the source of majority of the smuggled sugar, which enters the country.

Barreta stressed they were already assured of the support of the business sector and major planters organizations in the province in the move to boycott Coca-Cola products.

"We will continue with the boycott and protest until Coke buys our locally produced sugar. We will call on our national trade unions to join such call for boycott," said Hernani Braza, Sugar Watch convenor.

Braza is the secretary general of the National Confederation of Union in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP), which is affiliated with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

Barreta said that with Coke’s importation of premixes, it has deprived the government a total of P17.8 billion in tariffs since 2010 up to this year for their alleged failure to declare the 99.5 percent sugar content of the premixes which they imported into the country.

Sugar Watch also fears that prices of sugar will be low in the coming milling season because it alleged that Coke has enough stocks of premixes and HFCS for its future production. The company allegedly stocks about one million bags of premixes.

According to the group, the sugar industry should be protected because it is the source of income of thousands of farmer workers in the province. Coca-Cola’s refusal to buy locally-produced sugar is a form of boycott; thus, the company deserves to have its products boycotted, too, by the Negrenses, added the group.

"We are so much dependent on our sugar production. If the trend of low sugar prices continues, we will all be affected," said Virgie Vilches, the representative of Dagyaw, a group of agrarian reform beneficiaries.

During the rally on Wednesday, Sugar Watch members will gather at the Provincial Capitol Lagoon and march to the Bacolod Plaza. The rally will be held at 2:00 p.m. and the group expects to gather about 5,000 participants.

Meanwhile, Sugar watch is also asking the government to scrap Executive Order (EO) no. 850 issued by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

EO 850, which eliminated import duties on more products coming from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, five of the country's fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

Dated Dec. 23, 2009, the executive order takes effect on Jan. 1, 2010.

EO 850 spells out the commitment of the Philippines to the Asean Free Trade (AFTA), a free trade bloc agreement that aims to increase Asean's competitive edge as a production base in the world market through the elimination within Asean of tariff and non-tariff barriers and to attract more foreign direct investments to the region.

Under the original schedule of the Common Effective Preferential Tariffs (CEPT), which implements AFTA’s goals, highly sensitive products such as rice should have been phased-in this year. This has, however, been postponed.

"It created an unfair competition that started this problem in the sugar industry. They are killing our sugar industry," Barreta said.

The group also fears about the future of the sugar industry in 2015 when zero tariff rates will be implemented on sugar. Up to this time, they said, the government has not provided safety nets to protect the industry.

Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on June 21, 2011.