Sugar industry launches 'Operation Hammerdown'

MANILA, Philippines - The sugar industry is embarking on Operation Hammerdown as it intensifies its anti smuggling effort.

The operation will pursue the prosecution of sugar smugglers by gathering documentary evidence for use by the legal officers of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) in conjunction with the Bureau of Customs (BoC).

Gen. Joel R. Goltiao (ret.), head of the Sugar Anti Smuggling Organization (SASO) said that the anti-smuggling crackdown would focus of attention of SASO for the crop year 2011 / 12.

In the previous crop year, the SASO was preoccupied with intelligence and information gathering which were forwarded to the SRA and the BoC.

These resulted in raids, apprehensions and seizures of smuggled sugar especially in the Ports of Manila and at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).

According to Gen. Goltia, the operation is a natural next step to further discourage, if not eliminate the illegal activity that is affecting the livelihood of small farmers engaged in sugarcane farming.

Small farms represent about 80 percent of all the sugarcane farms in the country.

Operation Hammerdown will establish connections with their foreign counterparts (especially in Thailand) as a proactive measure to identify illegal shipments even before the stocks arrive in the Philippines.

At the other end of the domestic marketing channel, wholesalers and retailers will also be closely watched in coordination with the LGUs and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Samples will be procured and analyzed at the SRA laboratories for possible imported sugar content.

In Bacolod City, the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) is requesting the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to reduce the present allocation for “B” (domestic) sugar, citing a big drop in the prices of domestic sugar in the market.