Refined sugar withdrawal
drop equals raw sugar gains

The decrease in refined sugar withdrawals of 8.61 percent almost equaled the increase of 6.47 percent in withdrawals of raw sugar, SRA Administrator James Ledesma disclosed yesterday. In short, refined sugar withdrawals reached minus 45,636, just slightly less than the 53,431 gain in raw sugar consumption, according to the SRA records.

That's the situation as of February 26 and there seems to be no hints that refined sugar withdrawals will accelerate despite the claimed economic improvement of the country.

In short, beverage and food manufacturers have scaled down their demand for refined sugar. Or, perhaps, that there has been no pickup in the sale of beverages and food products, indicating that people have yet to go back to their usual consumption of items that normally are shaved from their daily expenses.

But that is also good. Why? Because our sugar production is expected to hit only 2 to 2.1 million metric tons this crop year.

As of Feb. 26, production reached only 1,412,184 Mts, or 53,380 Mts less than the same period last crop year. This equals a 3.64 percent drop in sugar production.

The worst was registered by Mindanao which hit 213,960 Mts. This is the equivalent of 33,578 metric tons less than the 247,538 last year, or 13.56 percent less.

The reason, the low price of sugar the previous year spurred many sugar farmers to shift back to either corn or banana, short-term crops that provide additional income to farmers.

But, according to Archie Amarra, SRA consultant, reports from the Mindanao area indicate another shift to sugarcane farming among the farmers due to the high price of sugar.

And the prognosis is that the country will enjoy the better crop next year, Ledesma said.

Panay also dropped 7.34 percent in production. Luzon, hurt by the closure of the Luisita Sugar Mill, also went down by another 6.39 percent, while East Visayas suffered a 12 percent decrease.

In short, the pickup in the price of sugar, influenced to a certain extent by the rise in world sugar prices, has encouraged sugar farmers to increase production.

This was borne out by the fact that many Negrense producers had been buying frenziedly tractors to allow deep plowing of their farms.

Commissioner Rafael Golez of the Sugar Board noted last week that he had noticed for the second time since two weeks ago that sugar producers had been buying tractors from the Metropolis. These were disbarged by a Negros Navigation Company boat. There were reportedly four brand new Massey Ferguson tractors, Golez said. And the previous week, when he went to Manila, he also noticed just about the same number of tractors unloaded in Banago.

Well, a good sign. It means that sugar producers are now investing in upgrading their farm equipment. In short, they have changed their mindset from just waiting for their sugarcane crops to grow but are investing time and money in seeing to it that they produce more sugarcane and sugar.

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Now it is apparent that the disappointment with the present administration among the country's military has been worse than had originally been anticipated.

That may have prompted the adoption by the Armed Forces of no more kid gloves treatment of coup plotters.

A very risky and dangerous policy, but necessary to discourage politicization of the military.

In the past, even the brains behind coups were supposedly emboldened by the mere slap on their wrists by the government. Amnesty was usually extended to those involved in plots to oust the administration. This time, however, the AFP and the civil authorities have become alarmed with the pervasive infections of the military by adventurism that they are now adopting a "no amnesty" policy against those involved in plots against the government.

The alarming thing about it is that many of our soldiers have been infected by politics and they have abandoned their military mindset not to get involved in political struggles.

It is time for the government to be more strict in the crackdown on adventurist soldiers and officers.

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Last weekend, I noticed a drastic change in the mindset of BREDCO president Sammy Palanca. Now, he is willing for the city government to pay him P1.7 billion and more for the government to take over the management of the BREDCO port. Apparently, I noticed that Palanca seems to have lost his cool over the continued efforts by certain high city officials to dun him more than what is acceptable in terms of increase in rentals for the operation of the port which the city government had not sunk a single centavo in.*

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