Some 4,000 metric tons of refined sugar smuggled from Thailand will soon be sold at various Kadiwa markets and stalls, the Department of Agriculture, or DA, said yesterday.
The DA said it has received from the Bureau of Customs the shipment that was seized at the Port of Batangas last April for lack of proper documents, specifically a Notice of Arrival.
The sugar was later cleared for donation and consumption based on the guidelines of Sugar Regulatory Administration Memorandum Circular 4, Series of 2023-2024, as well as provisions of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved the sale of seized smuggled sugar at Kadiwa centers last March, according to a statement from the Presidential Communications Office at the time.
The PCO said the recommended selling price at Kadiwa stores was P70 per kilo, which was equivalent to the prevailing actual mill gate prices.
The PCO statement said the President had tasked the DA and SRA to ensure that the sugar for sale passed the Food Safety Act and other regulations.
When the President gave the order in March, the price of refined sugar in the market was between P86 and P110 per kilo.
August shortage
The PCO explained that under the Customs Modernization Tariff Act, confiscated smuggled agricultural products could be donated by the BoC to other government agencies.
This week, the SRA said the current sugar supply is more than enough to meet demand. It noted a physical stock of 262,328 metric tons of raw sugar, 448,106.45 MT of refined sugar, and 148,264.29 MT of molasses as of 16 July.
However, the SRA, in mid-July, approved the importation of 150,000 metric tons of sugar as it projected a shortage in August.
Also on 15 July, shipping containers found to be full of smuggled refined sugar were seized by the BoC at the Manila International Container Port after they were declared as silica sand.
‘Smuggling encouraged’
The smuggled sugar seized at the MICP may also be donated by the BoC to Kadiwa stores, through the DA, according to BoC sources.
A month prior, in June, the Department of Finance floated the idea of allowing industrial users to directly import their sugar needs if they would accept the government’s new tax scheme on sweetened beverages.
Following the seizure of the smuggled sugar at the MICP, former BoC Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz scored the government’s excessive importation and the worsening smuggling of agricultural products.
“The remedy in previous administrations was that we imported. With that, we encouraged smuggling,” Ruiz said. “If smugglers can smuggle through our ports, they do not pay duties and taxes, and they have an edge already. Once they sell it to the market, they gain an edge in the pricing of their goods.”
According to Ruiz, smuggling costs the nation hundreds of billions of pesos every year.
The DA, citing a report of its monitoring and enforcement group, said that as of 31 July, the retail price of refined sugar in Metro Manila markets ranged from P86 to P110 per kilo, washed sugar from P82 to P90, and brown sugar from P78 to P90.
“We firmly believe that, through DA, this donation will reach various local communities and enable our fellow Filipinos to conveniently access sugar,” BoC Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio said.
The DA, through Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban and Assistant Secretary for Consumer Affairs and spokesperson Kristine Evangelista, received the donation from the BoC.
Importation not ok’d
In August 2022, the SRA issued an order to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar, a move that local producers said would undercut domestic sugar prices and benefit local importers.
The order was signed by then Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, who was acting chairman of the SRA at the time. However, Marcos, who chairs the SRA board as concurrent DA secretary, had not approved the order.
The scandal led to the resignation of Sebastian and other SRA officials. It also prompted an investigation by the Department of Justice and Congress.
Since then, the DA has been under the microscope about the importation of other agricultural products like onions and rice.