Bridging the Gap
By Henry Funtecha

Sugar production in Iloilo, 1950s-1960s

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, sugar production in Iloilo was on a standstill. After the liberation of the country from Japanese control, the United States' sugar requirement began to expand. Devastated areas of the world cried for food and economic assistance for which the U.S. had to respond. Consequently, the Roosevelt administration had to fulfill its political and economic commitments to the Philippines so that along with the granting of independence in 1946 was the loosening of restrictions on Philippine sugar entering the U.S. market.

In Iloilo, the first mill to resume operation right after the war was Central Santos-Lopez in Barotac Nuevo. Out of its depleted remains, the sugar mill plunged into the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the factory, invested no less than one million pesos for the installation of one more mill, and updated the two mills to accommodate the expanding milling requirements of the mill district.

According to a brief history of the Central Santos-Lopez written by R. Blancaflor, in just a span of less than two years, the milling corporation had completely recovered and turned out a quantity of 75,230 piculs for its post-liberation production. Continuously operating at its expanded capacity of 1,800 tons per hour, the said sugar central yielded out 355,544 piculs for the crop year 1954-1955. After almost a decade, it decisively vindicated and justified its investment for expansion when it milled 579, 245 piculs of sugar in the crop year 1963-1964, the highest production of the said mill district up to that year's records.

Since then, the factory accordingly accepted the sugarcane planters' challenge for expansion by immediately launching a timetable for the importation of equipment and machinery on a massive scale. Completed at the cost of six million pesos in 1966, the factory's increased capacity handled 3,000 tons per hour. Ironically, however, the same planters who were so loud about their demand for the mill's expansion, rather failed to produce enough canes to equally sustain the central's milling capacity. As a consequence, the factory incurred tremendous losses during the post-expansion crop years that followed due to lack of cane supply.

In 1966, the U.S. Sugar Act Amendment required the Philippines a supply of not less than two million tons of sugar every crop year beginning the crop year 1966-1967 and for this purpose, awarded the Philippines 47% of the total global quotas allotted to the sugar-producing areas of the world. Thus, sensing the sure loss of millions of dollars should it abandon its commitment, the Philippines placed its sugar industry into a state of emergency.

In response to the need for an increase in sugar production, additional sugar centrals were put up in Iloilo in 1968. These were the Calinog-Lambunao Sugar Corp. in Calinog, the Passi Sugar Central, and the New Frontier Sugar Central, also in Passi. The Passi Sugar Central was reputed to be the most modern mill in Asia at that time.

As a result of the putting up of more sugar mills, cane cultivation in several municipalitites of Iloilo also expanded. This was especially true in the towns of Calinog, Bingawan, Lambunao, Passi, Duenas, San Enrique, Barotac Nuevo, Barotac Viejo, San Rafael, Lemery, Mina, Janiuay, Badiangan, Maasin, and Cabatuan.