Hontiveros alleges ‘favored’ sugar traders earned billions in ‘super profits’
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:42 p.m.) — Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday said Malacañang must take action on a senior agriculture official's alleged favoring of three sugar traders who supposedly earned more than P10 billion in what she called "super profits."
Hontiveros said among the options available to the executive branch is to preventively suspend Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, who had allowed the importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar through only three traders.
"This is one action that the executive can do now: Preventively suspend Usec. Panganiban so that the damage he is doing up to this point in time can be stopped,” she said partly in Filipino in a news conference.
READ: 'Miscomm': Malacañang clears ex-agriculture execs in sugar import mess
Philstar.com has reached out to Agriculture Assistant Secretary Rex Estoperez, deputy spokesperson of the department, for comment on Hontiveros' statements. He has yet to respond to text messages.
Hontiveros added that Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin must break Malacañang’s apparent silence over the matter not just to clear himself and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., but to correct the "obviously wrong" actions that she said were done by the Department of Agriculture.
She alleged that at least one industrial user of sugar went to Panganiban and asked if it were possible to import the sweetener from Thailand, but was supposedly told that they have to negotiate with the three traders led by All Asian Countertrade Inc.
Citing unnamed sources but without presenting proof, the senator further claimed that All Asian initially provided a quote of P85 per kilo of sugar — when the sweetener is sold for just P25 per kilo at wholesale in Thailand.
"The P85 asking price of All Asian imposes an additional P24 peso super profit for a total of P32 per kilo profit. Multiplied by 440,000 metric tons, their profits are more than normal at P10.5 billion. That is large for just three traders. If we include normal profits, the total would reach P14 billion!" Hontiveros said.
"Selling it at 85 pesos is nothing short of outrageous," she continued. "It’s like you won 50 times in the Super Lotto without even betting."
Hontiveros warned that if this alleged practice continued, food and beverage manufacturers might just opt to import finished products directly, potentially leading to job losses in the local manufacturing sector.
She said the Senate Blue Ribbon panel must investigate this as soon as possible, adding that every day that passes without any action is “a blemish on the record of the Senate.”
Last month, Hontiveros flagged what she called a "government-sponsored" smuggling of sugar — an allegation that Panganiban denied in a news conference in Malacañang as he insisted that the importation was above board, citing a memorandum issued by Bersamin.
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