Newks moves vs. sugar smuggling

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella said yesterday he is arranging for a meeting of sugar leaders with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to discuss how to curb the rampant smuggling of sugar.

Newks made this comment after he had been informed by sugar leaders of the profuse amount of imported refined sugar in Metro Manila markets and malls.

“These are mostly imported refined sugar. And it is time that the Presidential Anti-Sugar Smuggling Task Force intensify their drive against sugar smuggling,” stressed Puentevella who just came in from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand .

The puzzle, though, was the fact that smuggling continues despite the offer of the sugar industry to put up its counterpart group in the government effort to curtail smuggling.

Although the industry counterfer-force had helped recently the PASG in confiscating smuggled sugar, there have been persistent reports of the entry into the country of illegally imported sugar, mostly from Thailand .

SRA Administrator Rafael Coscolluela, said Newks, is vital in the discussion although the SRA does not have the power to curb smuggling of sugar as he pointed out that the sugar agency is the one that monitors the domestic sugar market and could provide the cue as to the gravity of the smuggling of sugar into the country.

***

But the one that caught my attention was the report by Newks that the biggest agriculture firm of Spain – Abengua – has intimated their desire to invest millions of dollars in the Philippines , notably Negros Occidental.

This investment will be on energy – or sustainable energy. And their priority focus is on jatropha and cassava, the latter for ethanol production.

The Spanish firm will be sending down to the Philippines soon its officials to see the local climate for their investment.

That should signal a major economic take off for Bacolod and Negros Occidental. Newks said he will confer soon with Governor Joseph Maranon to discuss among others the location or site of the proposed roll-on-roll-off ports.

That's a welcome piece of news. The ro-ro ports can serve as temporary bridges between Iloilo or Panay and Bacolod or other part of the province as well as Cebu .

***

The good news. Yesterday, I espied the Misa de Gallo churchgoers at the Our Lady of Candles Parish and what impressed me most was that the number of young people who attended the novena-mass were more than the adults.

I think it was a one-to-eight ratio in favor of the young. And that, more or less, hints that a religious revival among the young who, often, are mistaken as having succumbed to the lure of the hedonistic lifestyle of the modern world.

The sight delighted me. Most of the youngsters enjoyed their early morning mass and they played around just like we used to when we were in our teens.

None of the serious-minded visage of the adults. Only the playful and joyous miens of the young who seemed to have enjoyed their attendance at a liturgical celebration.

That, I think, is the most welcome sight.

***

Former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos just put on the dock former Bureau of Prisons director Vicente Vinarao and incumbent prisons head Ricardo Dapat.

The reason – Jalosjos insists that he actually is a free man despite the clarification from Malacañang that the President had denied having ordered his release.

Earlier Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez recalled the release papers and even ordered an investigation on the mess pointing out that these had never passed the DOJ.

In short, as pointed out by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, there was fraud on the part of the officials who had ordered Jalosjos' release. She dubbed the whole exercise as a “cruel joke on the prisoner.”

In short, the person who had authorized Jalosjos' release and released the documents should be held accountable “because it was clear that he was acting outside his jurisdiction”, was how Santiago described the fact.

In short, Jalosjos should have kept his mouth shut instead of aggravating the mess by his threat to file charges if he were returned to the New Bilibid Prison.

With the Senate threatening to probe the matter, it could be another major black mark against the Arroyo administration, although, in fairness, the President, herself, had already distanced herself from the act of release.*

back to top