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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Koko on sugar import fiasco: 'No one is off the hook yet'

Koko on sugar import fiasco: 'No one is off the hook yet'

Published Aug 29, 2022 04:03 pm

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said on Monday, August 29 that no one is off the hook yet in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee public hearing on the sugar import fiasco.

‘’I have a few questions for ES (Executive Secretary Victor) Rodriguez,’’ Pimentel said as the Senate committee is scheduled to resume its public hearing tomorrow (August 30).

‘’Double check the facts. Interpretation of his memo to (former Department of Agriculture) Usec (Undersecretary Leocadio) Sebastian and then follow up questions depending on the answers given,’’ Pimentel said in a Viber message.

Senator Joseph Victor ‘’JV’’ Ejercito shared Pimentel’s sentiments.

‘’It's too early to clear people when we haven’t really finished the investigation,’’ he said.

‘’I, myself, have yet to ask questions and clarifications. I am a stakeholder in this particular issue being the author of both the Sugarcane Industry Development Act and the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act,’’ he added.

‘’This issue of importation and smuggling has been very frustrating for me as the autho of these two measures,’’ he stressed.

Sebastian later resigned from his post after admitting that he did not have the authority from President Marcos to issue an import order for some 300,000 metric tons of sugar.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier said that Rodriguez would return the Senate committee hearing.

Rodriguez had led raids and inspections on warehouses where thousands of sacks of sugar were discovered in Pampanga, Bulacan and Caloocan city.

Zubiri earlier asked aloud why there was an attempt to import when there are Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) records showing that there are some 127,000 tons of sugar in different warehouses.

Earlier, Senator Risa Hontiveros questioned the involvement of the office of Rodriguez regarding the ‘’unauthorized’’ sugar order.

In the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on last week, Hontiveros echoed the sentiments of netizens that there seems to be a “disconnect” between Malacanang’s claim that Rodriguez had no prior knowledge of the Sugar Order No. 4 and subsequent news reports revealing otherwise.

“This was not about one man misinterpreting intent and acting outside powers. This is the fallout of a messy, haphazard bureaucracy. Wag na natin i-minimize ang damage na nagawa nito (Let us not minimize rhe fallout of the damage,’’ she added.

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