Bridging the Gap
Iloilo's sugar production after WWII
The disruption of agricultural life after almost four years of Japanese occupation was nearly complete and widespread. Thus, after the war, low agricultural production was one of the major problems to confront the Philippine government and the people. It was during this time when production yields were far below the production requirement. This was blamed on the very slow rehabilitation support from the government and the farmer's lack of capital for the rehabilitation of their war-idled farms. This was further aggravated by the lack of water supply, ineffective pest control, improper application of fertilizer, and insufficient know-how in advanced agricultural techniques. Nevertheless, after a short period of time, agricultural production was able to recover. This was due to the fact that Iloilo Province, being one of the richest agricultural area in the Philippines, had an extensive utilization of land for agricultural purposes.
In terms of sugar production, Iloilo's output began to expand during the years that followed the liberation. The Roosevelt administration was obliged 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 sugar mill to resume operation right after the war was Central Santos-Lopez in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo. Out of its ravaged facilities, the central plunged into its reconstruction and rehabilitation, investing no less than one million pesos for the installation of one more mill. It also updated the two existing mills to accommodate the expanding milling requirements of the mill district (Blancaflor, n.d.)
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 1954-55. 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 record (Ibid).
Since then, the sugar central accordingly accepted the sugarcane planters' challenge for expansion by immediately launching a time table for the importation of equipment and machineries 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 2 million tons of sugar every crop year beginning the crop year 1966-67 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 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 both in Passi. The Passi Sugar Central was reputed at that time to be the most modern mill in Asia.
As a result of the putting up of more sugar centrals, cane cultivation in several municipalities of Iloilo also expanded. This was especially true in Badiangan, Barotac Nuevo, Barotac Viejo, Bingawan, Cabatuan, Calinog, Dueñas, Janiuay, Lambunao, Lemery, Maasin, Mina, Passi, San Enrique, and San Rafael.