Groups seek CBCP's support in effort to curb sugar smuggling
The Confederation of Sugar Producers' Associations, Inc. (CONFED) and National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, Inc. (NFSP) have asked a statement of support, through the intercession of Bacolod Catholic Bishop Vicente Navarra, from the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines in its effort to curb the sugar smuggling.
Jose Maria B. Montinola, CONFED Corporate Secretary, stated in his sworn affidavit the passage of Board Resolution No. 08, series of 2008-09 in Nov. 10, 2008.
NFSP's Board Secretary Plaridel G. Villadelgado also sworn that NFSP Multi-Purpose Cooperative passed Resolution last Nov. 12, 2008.
CONFED states in its Resolution that smuggling has always been a perennial problem that pervades practically all sectors of society and continues to wreck havoc on the country's economy and the people's well being.
The sugar industry has not been spared from smuggling's pernicious effects as smuggled sugar persists on serving as a strong deterrent to better the prices in the domestic market and pushes all industry stakeholders deeper into desperation and hopelessness with the government's seeming inability to eradicate the problem.
The government itself has been reeling under smuggling's harsh consequences and finds itself deprived of the essential resources that should have otherwise funded the delivery of public services.
The latest reports on government's substantial loss in revenues as a result of smuggling has spawned renewed calls for more stringent measures to combat the evils of smuggling and with the government's apparent helplessness, others have sought the intervention of the Church to bring back some sense of morality and conscience into the perpetrators of the crime.
CONFED - Negros / Panay Chapter, which has always been in the forefront of the war against sugar smuggling, sees no problem in attempts to secure the Church's condemnation of the crime.
They hereby resolved to seek through the intercession of the Most Reverend Bishop Navarra, a statement of support from the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines in the effort to curb smuggling.
Meanwhile, NFSP's Board Secretary Villadelgado in a sworn statement said that NFSP Multi Purpose Cooperative passed a Resolution series of 2008 which requested CBCP thru Bishop Navarra for a statement of support for the sugar industry's initiative to curb sugar smuggling.
The NFSP categorically and in the strongest terms condemn the proliferation of all forms of sugar smuggling - from technical smuggling and even through unscrupulous Customs Bonded Warehouse operators - as well as government's seeming helplessness to address the problem.
Gov. Isidro Zayco also supports these sugar planters organizations in its effort to curb sugar smuggling.
He received copies of their resolutions and he will endorse it to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for the passage of a resolution supporting the moves by NFSP and CONFED.