MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has appointed three new officials of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, Malacañang said Saturday.
Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez said that David John Thaddeus Alba, general manager of the Asociacion de Agricultores de La Carlota y Pontevedra (AALCPI), was appointed as the acting administrator of SRA. AALCPI is a group of sugar farmers in the country.
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Alba replaced Hermenegildo Serafica, who quit his post as the sugar body administrator last week.
The other new appointees were Pablo Luis Azcona who will represent sugar planters and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag who will represent sugar millers in the SRA. Azcona was the president of sugar group KABILOG, while Mangwag was the resident manager of Universal Robina Corp.’s sugar division Cagayan Robina Sugar Milling Company.
The appointments came following the resignation of officials who signed a sugar importation order without the approval of Marcos, who heads the Department of Agriculture for now. Aside from Serafica, agriculture undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian and SRA board member Roland Beltran have resigned.
Marcos met with representatives of farmers, millers, sugar workers, and refiners on Wednesday night to discuss importation and productivity issues, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said. Palace and sugar stakeholders agreed on the proposed importation of 150,000 metric tons of sugar.
The volume is just half of the 300,000 metric tons proposed earlier by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) but was rejected by Marcos
Earlier this month, Malacañang described as "illegal" the sugar importation order, saying it was issued without the president's approval. An investigation into the unauthorized order is ongoing.
The SRA, an attached agency of the agriculture department, is responsible for promoting the welfare of the domestic sugar industry.