The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 73 in Sagay City, Negros Occidental has issued a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against the importation of 200,000 metric tons of refined sugar provided in Sugar Order No. 3 of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
The ruling stemmed from the civil case for injunction with prayer for the issuance of TRO filed by United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) member association, the Rural Sugar Planters Association Inc., led by its president Joseph Edgar Sarrosa against the SRA represented by Administrator Hermenigildo Serafica.
In a two-page order dated February 11, a copy of which was furnished by UNIFED to reporters here on Tuesday, Executive Judge Reginald Fuentebella said Sarrosa’s group “has shown to the satisfaction of this court that grave and irreparable injury will result from the implementation of SRA Sugar No. 3”.
“The gravity of the possible injury cannot be underestimated as the sugar industry, directly and indirectly, impacts the lives of around three million Filipinos,” Fuentebella added.
The hearing on the motion for the writ of the preliminary injunction will be held on February 24, 9 a.m. through video conference.
Negros Occidental, the Philippines’ top sugarcane-producing province, generates about 60 percent of the country’s sugar output.
In a press conference held at the UNIFED office here, Sarrosa, together with fellow directors Lawyer Edgardo Acuña, Paul Azcona, and Andre Corro expressed the federation’s dismay over the untimely sugar importation set to arrive starting March 1.
The imported refined sugar will mainly benefit industrial users, which are the country’s major food and beverage manufacturers.
“We led the filing of TRO upon the urging of our planter-members who expected that (Sugar Order No. 3) will lead to depressed sugar prices,” Sarrosa said, adding that a copy of the TRO was already on its way to Manila to be served to Serafica on Tuesday.
He said that Serafica, being a planter himself, and also a part of the UNIFED before, should know the possible repercussions of an “ill-timed and ill-planned” issuance of a sugar order.
Sarrosa clarified that UNIFED, which has more than 30,000 member-planters nationwide, is not against sugar importation at all, but it should be “calibrated, scheduled and fair to all”, and should not be implemented at the height of the milling season.
The sugar milling season usually starts in September and ends in May.
“The sugar importation has no basis. We want Sugar Order No. 3 to be declared illegal,” said Acuña, a former provincial board member of Negros Occidental’s second district.
Azcona, a planter based in the southern city of Kabankalan badly hit by Typhoon Odette last December, said the damage on the sugarcane plantations should not justify the importation since the affected crops have been planted for the next crop year and will not affect the production for the current crop year.
“The sugar centrals in the south stopped milling only for a week and then we all went back to normal. It’s (importation) very ill-timed because at the moment, all those refineries are running,” he added.
In a statement, UNIFED president Manuel Lamata said the damage allegedly caused by SRA and Serafica with the issuance of Sugar Order No. 3 must be put to a stop.
“Instead of protecting the industry, he has derailed our efforts in pursuing productivity and better compensation for our farmers so at the very least, they can have quality life especially amidst the pandemic,” he added. (PNA)