770 workers displaced by Batangas sugar mill closure secure P10K cash aid
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 8:12 a.m., May 31) — House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has facilitated the release of financial aid to more than 700 sugar workers in Batangas who were displaced by the closure of a sugar mill in the province as the local sugar industry faces uncertainty.
The aid was sourced through the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program.
"Today, as we distribute these much-needed resources, we are not just providing financial support; we are also offering a glimmer of hope, a symbol of solidarity, and a reminder that no one is alone in their struggles," Romualdez said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
"I have also requested all government agencies now here with us to pool their resources together and come up with a long-term and comprehensive solution to the displacement issue affecting the farmworkers and their families," he also said.
In a separate press statement, Rep. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela Women's Party), who helped bring Romualdez and the sugar workers together, said around 770 sugar workers received P10,000 each in financial aid at a maximum of P3,000 per family. The aid distribution was led by the DSWD, with thousands more included in lists for the next rounds of aid.
"This is proof of what collective action can do," Brosas said in Filipino, of the aid distribution that happened because of on-ground consultations, dialogues and campaigning by the sugar workers and farmers affected by the closure of the Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. mill in Nasugbu, Batangas.
The closure of the CADPI sugar mill meant lost livelihood for 12,000 farm workers and has put the incomes of 8,772 tillers whose farms have been idled at risk, Romualdez said in his statement. It has also displaced 125 mill workers.
Brosas said that help to the sugar workers should not end with the distribution. "We must sustain the campaign to save the livelihoods of sugarcane cutters in Batangas," she said.
Sugar mill closure
The closure of the mill, announced in late 2022, has decreased the province's capacity to process sugar, according to a BusinessWorld report on March 14. Roxas Holdings Inc., a listed company, has put the mill up for sale and said in a stock exchange disclosure this month that, in the face of imported sugar, "it has been difficult for local sugar refineries to compete given the high prices of raw sugar feedstock and of outside fuel costs which have increased significantly in recent years."
Brosas said that the mill closure has also affected small sugar planters, truck drivers and others working to harvest, transport and process the sugarcane. She said they have been left with no source of livelihood since last December.
In February, Brosas filed a House resolution to look into the sugar mill's closure and to seek financial aid for displaced sugar workers. Gabriela said it stands with Sugarfolk's Unity for Genuine Agricultural Reform in its position that the aid will only bring temporary relief.
"There should be a program to revive the local industry instead of relying on the 'unli-importation' of tons and tons of sugar," she said. "We need to help our sugar farmers and agricultural workers and also block the land conversion of sugar fields left idle by the closure of CADPI."
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