BACOLOD CITY — A group of sugar planters urged lawmakers from Negros and Panay to push for a review and to rectify the reduction in the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) fund for 2019.
The Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations Inc. (CONFED) Negros/Panay Chapter, chaired by Nicholas Ledesma, made the call on Tuesday after it was reported that the allocation of PHP1.2 billion for 2018 will be reduced to only PHP500 million next year due to underutilization.
Ledesma, in a statement, said based on their records, the reduction should not have happened because the fund utilization has reached PHP1.2 billion in the previous budget. Majority of the allocation was spent for infrastructure and scholarships.
He cited records of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), which showed that only the fund for socialized credit has been underutilized because of the stringent process involved in availing the program.
This practically makes it difficult for small farmers to access socialized credit, he added.
“With the recent abolition of the Philippine Sugar Corp., we are pressed to appeal that socialized credit availability must be made simpler for small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries,” Ledesma said.
He pointed out that “these farmers comprise almost 90 percent of sugar producers and for whom SIDA was mainly intended by making the industry more competitive.”
Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, who was in Negros Occidental on Monday, confirmed the reduction in the SIDA budget due to underspending. She noted that the fund has been underspent every year.
Villar said the Department of Budget and Management reduced the allocation, believing the agencies involved have no capacity to fully spend the allocated fund.
Enacted in 2015, SIDA or Republic Act 10659 aims to promote the competitiveness of the sugarcane industry and maximize the utilization of sugarcane resources, and improve the incomes of farmers and farm workers, through improved productivity, product diversification, job generation, and increased efficiency of sugar mills.
Of the PHP2 billion annual fund, PHP1 billion is allocated for infrastructure for farm-to-mill roads; PHP300 million for credit; PHP100 million for scholarships: PHP300 million for block farm of the land reform beneficiaries; and PHP300 million for shared facilities program.
Moreover, the CONFED Negros/Panay Chapter appealed to the SRA to be more aggressive in the program’s implementation.
It also urged the SRA to create a desk that will solely work on the SIDA and how to make the programs more accessible to industry stakeholders. (Erwin Nicavera/PNA)
