| Thank you very much, Secretary Arty Yap.
Chairman Muņoz,
President Echaus, all the leaders of the sugar industry, my fellow government officials,
Secretary Pagdanganan, Limcaoco, Bunye, ladies and gentlemen.
Maayong hapon sa mga
Cebuano. Sa mga kasimanwa sang akon bana nga Ilonggo, maayong hapon naman. And to all the
rest of you, good afternoon.
Thank you for
inviting me to participate in your discussion of the Philippine Sugar Industry. And thank
you for the nice words you said President Echaus. And thank you arty for calling me a
friend of the sugar industry. Let me say that I also appreciate you because the sugar
industry has been a friend of mine all these years, thank you.
Indeed, I avoid
speaking engagements but I’m making an exception for PHILSUTECH because I want to use
this occasion to thank the industry once again for supporting me in ‘92, ‘95,
‘98, my candidates in 2001, and again in the last elections. Salamat gid, daghan
salamat, dacal a salamat mga sugar farmers sa Pampanga.
Indeed, the sugar
industry is very close to my heart starting from my father whom you supported since he
first ran for senator in 1955, ‘57, ‘61, ‘65. And I inherited something
from my father -- a habit. He in his time and I in my time, we always have two teaspoons
of sugar in our coffee. One for us and one for the industry. my father came from a sugar
province Pampanga. And he was supported by the sugar provinces all his career including
especially Negros Oriental.
My husband’s
family for generations has derived their income from sugar farms, so I can truly say I am
part of the sugar industry.
And so I’m
happy that it is before the sugar industry that I am speaking for the first time before
any agricultural sector since the may elections. Let me therefore begin not just with
sugar but with my strategic policy for agriculture for the next six years.
First, agriculture
is a source of jobs for our people. I’ve said in my inaugural address that we shall
try to create six to ten million jobs in the next six years. I also said that one of the
major ways to create ten million jobs is to develop two million hectares of agri-business
land.
Second, agriculture
is a source of food. And because you want to be competitive, we want our people not to
spend too much on their food so that they won’t always ask for higher wages.
That’s why we must reduce the cost of rice, corn, sugar and the other crops that we
call wage goods through greater productivity and efficient transport and logistics. I
won’t spend too much time about transport and logistics today but greater
productivity, that’s where PHILSUTECH comes in. Your work is technology transfer for
greater productivity.
I’ve been with
you three times. And in 2001 as a new president I was with you, we crafted a road map for
the sugar industry. That road map continues to pave our way forward. In 2001, we released
600 million pesos from the ACEF fund for sugar agricultural competitiveness to build small
dams and roads as well as to purchase farm equipment and other things to improve
productivity. And I’m glad that this contributed indeed to your productivity.
In 2001, when we
were together, you were producing 1.8 million metric tons. Now, you are producing 2.3
million metric tons. Congratulations!
In 2001, when we
started our road map, the average sugar production per farmer was 98 bags per hectare.
Today, it is 115 bags per hectare. Congratulations! Once again.
One of the reasons
is that we’re using hybrid cane just as in the more general knowledge of the
Filipinos we’re using hybrid rice for our rice farmers. We used to import sugar. This
year, we exported some 59,000 metric tons and next year, we expect to export around 230
metric tons to our neighbors in Asia on top of our sugar quotas to our traditional markets
like the united states.
This outstanding
production of the industry during the time, the period of our common road map, was very
good for three years. It brought up domestic supply and prices stayed good for three
years. But early this year, we all were very sad because then the prices went down. At
that time -- and this is one reason why he’s D.A. Secretary today -- I ordered NFA
administrator Arty Yap to buy sugar at 700 to 720 per bag to provide temporary relief to
the industry. And now, we’re having better times. I also issued EO 295 and Memo Order
134 to stop the smuggling of sugar- containing products and to regulate prices.
Today, reports
continued to reach me about sugar smuggling. As I said earlier, if the price goes down
because of economic factors like competition, well, the answer is to be competitive. But
if the price goes down because of smuggling as well then that’s not fair and we have
to stop smuggling. Reports reaching me indicate that some imported products are being
shielded from my directives through the device of tariff reclassification. In fact, the
memo that President Echaus gave me earlier, I glanced at it very quickly before I came in,
that’s one of the issues that you have raised.
So, I am -- arty,
tell the Tariff Commission this – I’m directing the Tariff Commission to review
its classification regulations for sugar-based imports to ensure that my directives are
not circumvented.
I also asked George
Jereos, the new commissioner of customs to come here today with me, because I’m
ordering the Bureau of Customs to stop the smugglers on their tracks. That’s why I
brought him with me so that he can hear my instructions in front of the sugar industry. We
met earlier in a private meeting. And I also gave special instructions to the Cebu
collector of customs, Billy Bibit. And I told them that I shall give them two months to
give significant results against sugar smuggling. but that’s on the part of customs.
On the part of the
sugar industry the challenge is how to remain profitable while consumers enjoy lower sugar
prices. The answer is, as I said earlier -- productivity and efficient transport and
logistics. Our goal is to be able to bring down production costs to be competitive with
Thailand, Australia, South Africa or even Brazil. I’ve instructed PHILSUCOR to help
finance the importation of urea as proposed by one of our sugar cooperatives. This should
help bring down fertilizer prices which is one of the reasons for the high cost of
production.
And in the memo that
was given to me by President Echaus, you’ve asked to have sugar designated as a
special product in the Doha round of the World Trade Organization. Without making any
promises, I will help you achieve this the best I can, best effort. best effort basis.
And I want to
acknowledge not only your gains in productivity, I want to acknowledge your highly
relevant efforts to produce ethanol from sugar cane and to generate electricity from
boiler steam. These fall squarely in line with our energy independence program. We were
trying to draw out every competitive advantage we can get from indigenous sources and
technologies. Ethanol as a gasoline additive is both renewable and environment-friendly.
Brazil has taken the
lead. And Thailand will soon use a five percent ethanol blend which we are aiming for.
And I told the
leaders of the industry, for this purpose, you might want to top the DBP’s lending
window for loans for the environment.
I also look forward
to the groundbreaking in 2005 of the joint venture with the first farmers mill and Talisay
bioenergy for a new Bagas-fired boiler. this will generate a surplus of 20 megawatts to be
sold to the Central Negros Electric Cooperative. The environmental compliance certificate
for this project I understand has just been approved. It’s another boon to our people
who are struggling for clean, stable power. Congratulations, first farmers!
With all these uses
for energy and power coming from sugar. In fact, I hope the day will come when the sugar
that I put in my coffee, the two teaspoons, will be just one of the many products coming
out of our sugar plantation. I hope the day will come when sugar will be so diversified as
far as its products are concerned -- food, power, energy -- that indeed, will be the dawn,
the new dawn of our industry.
I can’t forget
when I was a brand-new senator, there was the fear that sugar would be a sunset industry.
Well, we’ve worked together all these years -- I became senator in 1992, it’s
2004 now -- twelve years later, we haven’t seen the sunset. Let’s see the dawn.
Let’s make sure that our industry will never see the sunset but rather be united.
Keep our industry forever in the new sunshine.
Congratulations! And
thank you. |