Sugar trader faces perjury raps

A big-time sugar trader is facing perjury charges for allegedly lying before the House good government committee.

Rep. Rolex Suplico (LAMP, Iloilo) told reporters yesterday that he would ask the committee to cite sugar trader Margarita Sia in contempt and punish her for supposedly hiding the truth.

Sia, who controls South Pacific Sugar Corp., New Frontier Sugar Corp. and Gerry Commercial, is being investigated for her alleged smuggling into the country of 30,000 tons of sugar worth about P500 million.

During a good government committee hearing in Bacolod City last weekend, Suplico said committee members asked Sia if she is the majority owner of Gerry Commercial.

He said the trader denied controlling the sugar trading company but that he confronted her with documents showing her majority ownership of Gerry Commercial.

He said Sia also insisted that she notified the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) before her shipment arrived.

"This claim is belied by official SRA records which show that notification was made only after the arrival of the shipment," he added.

He pointed out that he had initially moved for citing Sia in contempt of the committee during the Bacolod City hearing, but that the panel postponed decision on his motion.

"I will pursue this to its logical conclusion. Congressional inquiries should not be taken lightly by all concerned," he stressed.

It was Suplico and Rep. Julio Ledesma (LAMP, Bacolod City) who had exposed the alleged smuggling of sugar by Sia's companies.

Ledesma and the mayor of San Carlos City in his district even led Customs officials last year in impounding a North Korean cargo ship that docked in the city's port with tens of thousands of tons of Thai sugar without the proper documents.

At that time, Ledesma said he checked with SRA Administrator Nicolas Alonzo if the shipment was covered with the proper SRA permits and was told that no such permits were issued.

He said Sia was supposed to pay SRA millions in sugar levies before the shipment was to arrive, but that no such levies were paid.

However, Sia's sugar cargo impounded in San Carlos City and another one held in Iloilo City were later released by Customs reportedly upon the intercession of a presidential friend.

The sugar trader claimed then that all her shipments were legal.