E-VAT raises prices
of prime commodities

Whether one agrees with it or not, there is no running away from the fact that prices will go higher with the implementation starting yesterday of the Expanded Value Added Tax to 12 percent from the previous 10.

The development on this and other price increases will have its impact registered in the coming days. No, not the immediate reaction by activists. We have to watch carefully how government copes with the price increases. Then, perhaps, we protest.

And that seems to be the temper of the times. This is something that has universal application. For none of us can run away from EVAT. Whether it is the food we eat in restaurants, or the food we buy daily. All will bear the imprint of the EVAT. And the government, especially the Department of Trade and Industry, will have their hands full running after hoarders and profiteers.

And, incidentally, until now no one has been charged or convicted for these crimes. It seems that the cap on prices is a problematic issue under the free enterprise system of society enshrined in our constitution.

Even the late President Marcos shied away from strict enforcement of the price control law. He knew that it was a futile exercise. Products will just disappear from the shelves and give rise to the underground economy.

Anyway, the more important thing to consider now is for all of us, who think we have enough to spare, to ease the problems of the majority of our brothers and sisters. This is actually the opportunity God grants us to be able to internalize the Christian concept of universal brotherhood under God.

The only problem - are we prepared to do our share?

****

The way it now looks, former Rep. Oscar Garin, now agriculture assistant secretary, and TESDA Secretary Boboy Syjuco will not be able to iron out their differences that almost led to a fracas when the two met at Tatoy's Restaurant in Arevalo, Iloilo City recently.

That was during the dinner hosted by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas.

Both have been dishing out their respective versions of the incident to Iloilo radio and television. The din has proven entertaining to a lot of people, although that could drive a wedge among the supporters of both officials.

The problem stems from the alleged attempts by Syjuco to convince Garin to run in the last elections against Gov. Niel Tupas. At the time, Syjuco was still abroad. But when he arrived home, the former solon reportedly changed his mind about running for reelection as second district representative. Instead, he fielded his wife Congresswoman Judy Syjuco in his place and she won the elections handily.

But the Garin campaign suddenly fell through when Syjuco reportedly shifted his support to Tupas.

That seems to be the root of the bad blood between the two officials. Although they belong to the same side, as aides of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, that has not healed the rift between them.

Thus, the chance meeting between both (Garin persistently claimed that Syjuco really sought him out), led to a near fracas. And even Rep. Judy Syjuco reportedly hit Garin in the stomach with her handbag.

Anyway, the issue is that in Iloilo, their politics can be very heated and unforgiving.

***

Yesterday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave the go-signal to the Sugar Regulatory Administration to import 50,000 metric tons of sugar to teach hoarders a lesson on why they should not manipulate prices.

I have no objections to that. As a matter of fact, I was the first one who warned that if sugar millgate prices run away, it could bring on the heads of the sugar producers (or traders) government intervention. And what just happened was exactly what I had predicted. It is a hard lesson, but something that needs to be studied further.

The only problem, as far as I am concerned, is that the sugar industry has become once more the favorite whipping boy of the government. In the first place, the daily consumption of sugar by most households is hardly P2 daily. As pointed out by Sharon Peruelo, a small Kabankalan City sugar farmer, it is only now that the poor small farmers could heave a sigh of relief from their continued dependence on low profits to be able to enjoy the benefits from the increased millgate prices.

Small farmers represent 80 percent of the country's sugar producers. And the survey shows that they earn only an average of P10,000 to P15,000 per annum per hectare of sugar farms. And they have to feed a family of five from their earnings.

By the way, the rise of sugar prices is not a domestic phenomenon. It is global. The major factors that spurred the rise of sugar in the world market are the catastrophic hurricanes that battered Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida last year, and the two others that razed the sugar crops of Mexico and Cuba. Flooding also decreased India's production. Drought, on the other hand, also affected China, Australia and Thailand's productions. Worse, the artificially depressed domestic prices of Thailand had given rise to a lucrative export smuggling of sugar.

The worst, though, was the announcement by the European Union that the elimination of its subsidies to its former colonies in Africa, the Carribean and the Pacific will reduce its exportable sugar from 5 million to only 1.5 million metric tons.

The major culprit, blamed by world traders, is the shift to sugarcane as an energy product with the production of ethanol as the fuel of the future. It is sustainable, renewable and clean. And Brazil, the world's biggest exporter, is allocating more than 50 percent of its sugarcane to ethanol. Or, as pointed out by one stockbroker, 1.7 million cars were sold in Brazil last year. And 54 percent are flexi-cars which use ethanol as fuel.

Brazil was reported not only to have lost 3 million metric tons of sugar, but is also contemplating to shift 54 percent of its sugarcane to ethanol.

Unfortunately, our own government still has to pass into law the National Bioethanol Program.*

back to top