Hontiveros to SRA: Submit documents on sugar importation

MANILA, Philippines — The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) should submit all documents on the sugar fiasco to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, Sen. Risa Hontiveros yesterday urged.

“I look forward to the commitment of chairman (Sen. Francis) Tolentino to hear the sugar fiasco ‘round 2,’ and I have full faith that he will be as zealous as he was during the first sugar hearings,” Hontiveros said partly in Filipino.

“I call on the SRA to submit the documents promptly, because they are waiting for it. But the chair can start the hearing and just issue a subpoena duces tecum, if necessary,” she added.

Earlier, Hontiveros called on resigned SRA chief David Thaddeus Alba to come out and speak the truth about the sugar importation issue, or he might be “left holding the bag.”

She said many insiders claimed the SRA is only being used as a rubber stamp to legitimize the preferential treatment given to some favored importers.

“We need to act with urgency, preferably after Holy Week, even before the sugar in the ports runs out. There are predicate crimes that have taken place and continue to unfold – and exposing these crimes may allow us to unravel the bigger crimes of economic sabotage and possibly plunder,” Hontiveros added.