Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez on Tuesday denied at a Senate hearing the allegation that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. even considered or ordered the importation of 600,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar.

At the Senate Blue Ribbon panel hearing, Rodriguez said: “I categorically deny that there was an instruction from the President to even consider or to import 600,000 MT of sugar for SO4 (Sugar Order No. 4).”

Former Sugar Regulatory Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica earlier claimed that Marcos considered importing 600,000 MT of sugar during a hybrid meeting on August 4 after Blue Ribbon Committee chair Senator Francis Tolentino asked him for clarification.

“With all due respect to our beloved President, when he said we should import 600,000 MT of sugar, I said that might be too much,” Serafica said.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri threatened to cite Serafica for contempt.

“Your Honor, the President did not even want to import 300,000 MT and now you’re suggesting that he wants to import 600,000 MT? I don’t believe that. Impossible,” Zubiri said.

“The president will not come up with a number at the top of his mind. You better clarify. Mr. Serafica, you are very close to being cited for contempt,” he added.

Tolentino, who chairs the Blue Ribbon panel, asked Rodriguez to confirm Serafica’s accusation.

Rodriguez said there was no truth to Serafica’s statement.

“His Excellency, our President, did not mention any amount in terms of the quantity of sugar to import. That’s why we stopped at the import plan because we were not convinced that we had to import 300,000. There is no truth to the claim that the amount of 600,000 MT came from the President,” Rodriguez said.

“And fact of the matter,your honors. There is already SO1 (Sugar Order 1) and SO2 (Sugar Order 2) passed by the new (SRA) board. We will only import 150,000. It’s far from the 600,000 MT that the former SRA Administrator is saying,” said Rodriguez.

Senator Risa Hontiveros asked if there was any opposition to the proposed 300,000 MT.

Rodriguez said he and the President both opposed the proposal, which was the reason they asked for a sugar import plan.

“I am not denying that from the start, the SRA had been pushing for the importation of 300,000 MT. That is why we asked for a sugar import plan, so they can justify why they are so fixated with 300,000 of importation. That will be the subject matter of the SO4,” he said.

Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, Serafica and three members of the Sugar Regulatory Authority quit after the government said it was not pursuing a plan to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar last month despite high local prices.

Sebastian's resignation was not accepted and he remains under preventive suspension. Jaspearl Tan/DMS