Malacañang insists sugar importation aboveboard, sugar order not needed to import
MANILA, Philippines — Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin stressed Tuesday before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that the importation of sugar pushed by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. was not irregular as a sugar order is not needed to bring in the sweetener to the country.
“To us, in the Office of the President, we have committed no irregularity, no violation when we issued that sugar order. Neither was there any violation committed by any of the parties involved in this questioned transaction,” Bersamin said.
Earlier in the hearing, Sen. Risa Hontiveros—who alleged that the entry of 440,000 metric tons of sugar into the country without a sugar order was “government-sponsored smuggling”—cited Republic Act 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act as her basis for saying that a sugar order is necessary before the sweetener is imported.
Specifically, she cited Section 117 of the law, which provides that regulated goods like sugar can only be imported or exported after securing the needed goods declaration or export declaration, clearances, licenses and other requirements.
It also provides that in case of importation, requirements can be submitted after the arrival of goods and before their release from customs custody but only in cases provided by governing laws and regulations.
Bersamin, who was chief justice from 2018 until his retirement in 2019, cited the same provision to justify that a sugar order is not needed for the sweetener to be brought into the country.
“We need only to have the importer obtain the clearances from the (Sugar Regulatory Administration) in order to see to the release of the importation,” he said. “Now that clearance cannot be issued without the sugar order being issued first because the sugar order will become the basis for the application of the clearances.”
He added that there are several ways to import sugar aside from using a sugar order, which include “when the president exercises his powers as the chief executive when there is an urgent need for such an exercise.”
‘Taking power from Congress’
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Hontiveros said it seemed like the executive branch took from Congress its power to legislate.
“What we witnessed earlier is the changing of policy, and in effect the law, right in front of our very eyes just to say that a sugar order is not needed before importing sugar which is a regulated commodity,” she said partly in Filipino.
“Why did we in the Blue Ribbon even bother last year in the earlier sugar order where the issue back then was if it was a proper sugar order if it did not have the signature of the president?” she added.
Hontiveros was referencing the Blue Ribbon probe into Sugar Order No. 4 which was issued by the SRA for the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar even without the go-signal of Marcos, who also sits as agriculture secretary.
She said the issues surrounding Sugar Order No. 6, which authorizes the importation of 440,000 metric tons of sugar, was worse than the last sugar fiasco as it supposedly involved the bringing in of the sweetener without a valid sugar order.
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