Rojas calls on Cebu customs: Halt rampant sugar smuggling

Author/Source: visayan daily star

07/14/2010

The Sugar Anti-Smuggling Office reports clearly indicate that sugar smuggling is rampant in Cebu, Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, informed Bureau of Customs Port Collector Ronnie Silvestre of the Port of Cebu.

Rojas in his letter dated July 12 to Silvestre, a copy of which was furnished the DAILY STAR yesterday, said he hopes the Port of Cebu district collector exerts more efforts to put a stop to these illegal activities. Rojas was reacting to Silvestre’s July 5 letter addressed to Bureau of Customs OIC-Commissioner Alexander Arevalo, copies of which were furnished the NFSP and the Sugar Regulatory Administration, regarding the federation’s report on the proliferation of smuggled raw sugar in Cebu. In his letter to Arevalo, Silvestre said that, while he welcomes the report of Rojas, since he assumed office as Port of Cebu district collector, he has issued directives to his personnel to be more vigilant in ensuring that no smuggling of sugar takes place in the port. Retired Gen. Joel Goltiao, head of the Sugar Anti-Smuggling Office reported last week that SASO operatives, in coordination with SRA-Cebu personnel and two persons allegedly from the BoC, had apprehended two container vans containing 200 50-kilo bags of refined sugar on July 2 in Cebu. The apprehended sugar was reportedly intended for delivery and repacking to a retailer which, based on SRA sugar price monitoring reports, had been selling refined sugar at only P42.15 per kilo last March 4-5, 2010 when refined sugar retail price in Negros was already in excess of P52.00 per kilo, Rojas said. “Cebu does not have a sugar refinery. It is a net domestic importer of refined sugar. How come that average retail price of refined sugar in Cebu is cheaper by more than P7 per kilo compared to prices in Negros which has several sugar refineries? Where does Cebu get its cheaper refined sugar, if not from illegitimate, smuggled sources?” he asked. Rojas also pointed out that, on July 9, SASO and PNP personnel, accompanied by BoC-Cebu personnel, confiscated 266 bags of undocumented sugar with Thailand markings, another 70 bags of smuggled sugar, and 400 empty sacks bearing Thai Roong Ruang markings from three separate warehouses in Cebu City. On July 10 SASO operatives also discovered 177 bags of undocumented sugar in another business establishment in Lahug, Cebu, he added. All the confiscated sugar had been turned over to Silvestre’s office, he said. “Apparently, the measures that your office had undertaken failed to stop the influx of smuggled sugar into Cebu and other nearby markets,” Rojas told Silvestre. Sugar smuggling has a debilitating effect on all sugar producers. It drives down domestic sugar prices and deprives government of much-needed revenues, Rojas pointed out. He furnished the Office of the President and the SRA a copy of his letter to Silvestre.*CPG