Canary in the coal mine

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 11 Sep 2022 by Romeo Bernardo

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Last week, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating the controversy surrounding the August 9 order of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar concluded its public hearings. It recommended the filing of administrative and criminal charges against the four officials who signed the importation order, one of whom, an undersecretary in the agriculture department, is the chief of staff of the agriculture secretary, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. himself. The President was insulated from the heated arguments. To recall, the controversy broke when the President, through his spokesperson, denied approving the importation order after it was issued, called it illegal, and rescinded it. The agriculture undersecretary, his chief of staff Leocado Sebastian, promptly asked to be relieved of his duties and the senate probe began soon after. During the hearings, Undersecretary Sebastian testified that he signed the order in good faith, believing that he had authority from the President based on a memorandum from the President’s executive secretary, and that the decision to import the specific volume of sugar is based on data showing the shortage at hand of raw and refined sugar in the domestic market which had been discussed in earlier meetings with the President. Those in the agriculture community following the whole affair, who know Undersecretary Sebastian to be an honorable man, left it with a bitter taste in the mouth. The sentiment seems to be that not only was the man thrown under the bus, he was demonized, then fed to the wolves. And all for signing off on an importation order that the President himself had since said would be nec...