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THE Duterte authorities is on the verge of violating the regulation in resuming importation of 200,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar regardless of two courtroom orders suspending it, Senator Imee Marcos warned on Thursday.
Marcos, who chairs the Senate Committee on Financial Affairs, issued the warning after the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) on Tuesday issued Memorandum Round No. 11 saying that purposes to import sugar have resumed.
The senator maintained “this defies two non permanent restraining orders (TRO’s) issued by the Sagay and Himamaylan regional trial courts in Negros Occidental earlier this 12 months.”
In a information assertion, the lawmaker recalled that the Sagay courtroom’s order in February particularly instructed the SRA “to take care of the established order to be efficient till the termination of this case except earlier lifted.”
Marcos added that the SRA round’s exclusion of Western Visayas from eligibility for import purposes was “a circumvention of the courtroom orders coming from the area.”
Court docket hearings, she careworn, “are nonetheless being held to resolve the battle” between the federal government and two main teams of sugar planters that sought the TROs—the United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed) and the Rural Sugar Planters Affiliation Inc.
Marcos bemoaned the “brazen try and import sugar regardless of its suspension factors to an actual ‘midnight deal’ earlier than the current administration steps down from workplace on the finish of June.”
The senator careworn that the subsequent courtroom listening to has but to happen on June 28.
In flip, Unifed advised the senator’s workplace on Wednesday it was poised to file circumstances towards Agriculture Secretary William Dar and SRA chief Hermenegildo Serafica for “contempt of courtroom” for implementing Sugar Order (SO) No. 3 regardless of courtroom rulings and pending circumstances towards it.
Each authorities officers contend {that a} sugar scarcity might happen later this 12 months because of the harm wrought by Hurricane “Odette” final December, whilst sugar planters stay assured of with the ability to meet the nation’s sugar wants.
In a digital information briefing on Tuesday, Dar disclosed that the DA’s inclination was to push via with the implementation of SO 3 in areas that aren’t coated by current or pending non permanent restraining orders filed by sure quarters of the trade.
“Everyone seems to be conscious that sugar costs have been excessive and proceed to go up weekly. It’s clear from these information that we have to increase our sugar provide on the soonest doable time to make sure meals safety in sugar and meals merchandise utilizing sugar in addition to arrest the persevering with enhance in sugar costs which impacts inflation,” the SRA mentioned in a information assertion on Wednesday.
SO 3 approved the importation of 200,000-MT refined sugar to plug the shortfall in home provide and arrest skyrocketing retail costs of the sweetener. Nonetheless, the sugar order confronted authorized debacles as trade teams akin to Unifed sought the courtroom’s authorized intervention towards the importation program.
In March, Government Choose Reginald M. Fuentebella of the Regional Trial Court docket Department 73 in Sagay Metropolis, Negros Occidental issued a writ of preliminary injunction towards SO 3, stopping the implementation of the federal government’s import program. (Associated story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2022/03/01/court-halts-sras-sugar-importation-plan/) With a report by Jasper Y. Arcalas
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