Lim orders drive vs 'magic sugar'

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim yesterday directed the Manila Police District (MPD) and the city health department to confiscate and stop the use of sodium cyclamate, also known as “magic sugar,” as a sweetener for cold drinks sold by ambulant vendors.

The chemical, a known carcinogen, has been banned in the country since 1970, Lim said in a statement.

The Department of Health sent sanitation inspectors to conduct random checks on drinks sold by ambulant vendors. None tested positive for magic sugar.

Manila health superintendent Dr. Marie Lorraine Sanchez said they will continue to monitor vendors in coordination with the MPD.

Meanwhile, ambulant vendors held a dialogue with Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut yesterday and vowed to cooperate with the police in unmasking the distributor of the carcinogenic substance.

Sodium cyclamate is being distributed under the Gold Bell brand, manufactured in Indonesia, and smuggled into the Philippines.

It is being discreetly sold among vendors at P30 per pack, enough to sweeten a gallon of cold drinks as against three kilos of refined sugar at P45 per kilo, police said.

Vendors in Divisoria, however, cried foul over the “Gestapo-like” seizure of the cold drinks they were selling by policemen under Superintendent Ernesto Tendero Jr. “They seized and emptied our containers even without proof that we are using magic sugar. Our small capital had gone to waste with the barbaric acts of these policemen,” complained the vendors.

Yabut said he received text messages that the illegal use of magic sugar is rampant even in the provinces such as Bulacan, Bicol, Batangas, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Cebu, Sorsogan and Zamboanga City.

A vendor also volunteered to surrender three packs of magic sugar he reportedly bought from a roving salesman in Quiapo.

Yabut said his policemen are presently monitoring a warehouse in Binondo where a large supply of magic sugar is reportedly stored.