Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez has maintained that the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s plan to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar has no basis, which was the reason why President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. did not authorize such importation.

Rodriguez said there was yet no policy as regards sugar importation because “we have yet to establish the factual basis for importing the needed quantity of sugar to promote the interest of the industrial users vis-à-vis the interest of the local producers and the stability of prices and supply for domestic/home consumption. Nandun pa lang kami sa stage na ‘yun, when they passed that Sugar Order No. 4 without clearance from the acting secretary, PBBM.”

“The SRA couldn’t even give us an accounting of the 200,000 MT importations it authorized in February, whether this was done in defiance of two Negros Occidental courts’ restraining orders to do so, in response to the suit filed by planters,” Rodriguez told Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao on Tuesday.

“There has been this habit of the SRA to issue orders authorizing 200,000 or 300,000 imports. But where do they get such figures?,” the executive secretary added.

In a telephone interview with Tiglao, Rodriguez disclosed that his office is investigating reports that the 300,000 MT importation was being pushed aggressively by certain traders who intend to use it as a “cover” for them to release the sugar they had hoarded but couldn’t release as this would depress prices.

“One report said this could result in windfall profits for them of at least P300 million, and a part of this amount has been mobilized as lobby money,” Tiglao wrote in his Aug. 17 column.

On the issue of the July 15 “Memorandum” issued by the executive secretary that supposedly gave authority to Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian to sign contracts, including sugar orders for the President, Rodriguez denied giving such authority.

“No, we even sent him a list of his ‘authorities’ that didn’t include signing for the President as his representative in the SRA,” Rodriguez said. He reiterated that Sebastian was authorized to represent the President in meetings where he cannot attend, but he wasn’t authorized to “sign for the President” in any major decision of that body.

“Sebastian didn’t even inform the President or me that the Sugar Board will meet to approve that importation. We found out about it only when my staff reported that the SRA posted the order on its website,” Rodriguez pointed out.

Rodriguez explained: “I thought that this was clear for Sebastian when he officially asked the President through my office for ‘guidance’ on an issue that was less important than the importation of 300,000 MT of sugar. This was for the release to the market of 63,000 MT of sugar that was part of the 200,000 MT importation authorized by Sugar Order No. 3. His request was made July 29, and we haven’t acted on it, so the SRA hasn’t released those sugar stocks.”

Sebastian in his memorandum reported to Rodriguez that based on the SRA’s staff’s analysis, he was recommending the 300,000 MT importation. Sebastian wrote: “The SRA board will meet to approve the recommended volume [which would be in the form of Sugar Order 4].

“But here’s the problem. The letter is dated August 5, and the SRA board met on August 9 and passed the sugar order. C’mon, did Sebastian really expect the Office of the President to respond to his memorandum in just three days’ time, for him to tell the SRA board to go ahead with Sugar Order 4?,” Tiglao commented in his column.

Rodriguez told Tiglao that “As late as August 7, there was no clearance to do what they did. Sebastian knows from several instances in the past that when he asked for clearance for some decision from the President, and if I don’t reply on his request, it means the President hasn’t decided yet.”

The sugar order was released August 9, and posted on the SRA website. Rodriguez, knowing it hadn’t been approved by the President, ordered the SRA on August 10 to delete the announcement.

On August 11, Sebastian submitted his letter of resignation to Marcos as Agriculture undersecretary for operations and his chief of staff. Five days later on Aug. 16, Malacanang accepted the resignation of SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica and Board Member and miller’s representative Roland Beltran.

When asked if Sebastian met with him after the order was rescinded, Rodriguez told Tiglao on a text message: “He did on the day we learned of their passage of SO 4. All he did was to say ‘Akala ko ho kasi ay okey na.’

Tiglao asked Rodriguez to call SRA Administrator Serafica and put him on speaker phone with board member Beltran also on the other line and asked them the same question. I got the same reply: “Akala ko ho kasi okey na as per Sebastian.”

“Well, the new information shows that they did, and I can only surmise how they could have been so bold that they could do that, and get away with it,” Tiglao wrote in his column.