LCP hits rouge groups of MILF

The League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) this week approved a resolution condemning the senseless acts by rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and called on both the military and the police to hunt down relentlessly those responsible for the wave of violence in Mindanao.

“Apply the full force of the law and make these rogue elements answerable before the Philippine justice system,” stressed the resolution approved unanimously by the LCP board, headed by its chairman, Mandaluyong City Mayor Benjamin Abalos.

The LCP members are currently touring the Negros provinces.

The LCP also supports the peace process in proposing measures that would finally put an end to the Mindanao conflict.

The league also appealed to the national government and its member-cities to immediately extend the needed assistance to the displaced civilians in the conflict areas. It also asked the Supreme Court to resolve immediately the issues related to the proposed Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain to prevent an escalation of the armed conflict and for the government to pursue negotiations and continue the peace process in Mindanao.

Yesterday, Abalos also admitted that most LCP members favor the federal form of government, although the league has no official stand yet on the matter.

In short, one of the main points that has drawn the support of LCP members is that federalism could boost the income of local government units and assure a more equitable distribution of resources.

Among the early participants in the Negros tour were Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Science City of Muñoz Mayor Nestor Alvarez, Abalos, Santiago City Mayor Amelita Navarro, Samal Island Garden Mayor Roger Antalan, General Santos City Pedro Alarcon Jr., San Carlos City Mayor Eugenio Lacan, Silay Mayor Jose “Oti” Montelibano, Baguio City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Talisay Mayor Eric Saratan, Palayan City Mayor Romeo Capinpin, and Taguig Mayor Sigfrido Tinga.

And there were a lot more, including former LCP head Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City. Their presence in Negros Occidental has aroused a lot of interest among Negrenses.

Sugar industry’s woes

Well, for Negrenses, the future prospects of the sugar industry remain their focus of concern. The province is a monocrop economy with sugar as the linchpin of its economy.

Thus, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela came out on Wednesday with a picture of the challenges and the prospects of the industry after 2010.

But the message was loud and clear — belt-tightening measures for the next two years.

And why? The rising cost of fertilizers and fuel, a surplus production and the prospects of “lifting of the tariffs on imported sugar.” If unsolved, that could peril the survival of the industry by 2010 when the tariff is supposed to go down to zero to five percent.

That, more than anything else is the most challenging of the possibilities that confront the sugar farmers, pointed Coscoluella.

While the sugar surplus of 450,000 metric tons is being addressed, the more formidable challenge is still what to do with the inevitability of the sugar tariff going down to 28 percent next year and to zero to five percent by 2010.

What does that imply? That’s why I took time out to interview Philippine Sugar Research Foundation chairman Bernardo Trebol about the controversial issue and what the industry is doing to solve it.

The first danger is that imported sugar will flood the country with the lower tariff. And the threat comes from Thai sugar. As Trebol pointed out, such an eventuality will allow imported sugar to eat up the market share of our local farmers. And that will naturally mean they will produce less and less sugar and reduce our sugar workforce. The Philippines will then depend on sugar imports that will subject the country to price swings and supply shortages in the world market.

“Just look at the situation of rice and fuel. Imagine that happening to the country if we reduce our tariffs,” Trebol pointed out.

And, considering that 500,000 of our workforce are in the industry, that could be lead to massive unemployment and present the prospects of social unrest, Trebol added.

And that also means that with the reduction of sugar production, it could also abort the present diversification moves by the industry through the production of bioethanol and co-generation by the sugar mills.

“If there is less sugar production, the ethanol plants and co-generation facilities will no longer find it feasible to operate,” continued Trebol.

What is needed? First Trebol disclosed that the issue had been discussed with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is fully aware of and sympathetic to the industry’s call to make representation with the ASEAN Trade Fair Council to raise Philippine sugar from the competitive to the highly sensitive list and to retain the 38 percent tariff level.

Indonesia did it in 2000 when it declared the transfer of its sugar from the exclusion list to the highly sensitive list. Despite the absence of any agreement or protocol from ASEAN allowing the transfer, Indonesia went ahead in its 2007 Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT). ASEAN merely condoned Indonesia’s action.

“That is a classic example of assumption and political will and Indonesia is not even a producer, but just a net importer of sugar,” Trebol commented.

What is needed is for the industry to retain the current 38 percent tariff beyond 2010. This will give time to the industry to continue developing and improving its diversification strategies – specifically bioethanol and power co-generation.

This will limit the impact of imported subsidized sugar on our market. It will also give the industry sufficient time to develop and diversify, stressed Trebol.

“The Indonesia example (prods) us to be prepared to stand and fight for the industry. And that the industry will fight tooth and nail to transfer sugar to the highly sensitive list,” he vowed.

Now, I hope you will understand the implications of a seemingly innocuous issue on one of the country’s vital industries.