Planters welcome Koko's bid to help sugar industry

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The Confederation of Sugar Producers' Associations welcomed the commitment of Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III to help Negros Occidental and its sugar industry.

"The sugar industry needs all the help and the support we can get," CONFED Negros-Panay Chapter chairman Raymond Montinola said yesterday.

Pimentel, whose wife, Bb. Pilipinas-Universe 1998 Jewel Mae Lobaton is a Negrense, is set to be proclaimed today by the Senate Electoral Tribunal as the 12th winning senator in the 2007 elections.

"I married a Negrense; I am committed to helping Negros," said Pimentel whose proclamation was preceded by the resignation last week of Juan Miguel Zubiri.

Montinola said CONFED was very willing to discuss with Pimentel and update the latter on the situation of the sugar industry.

CONFED would also ask Pimentel to find solution to the many problems affecting the sugar industry such as smuggling and the large importation of premix sugar and high fructose corn syrup by industrial users, which results to the low demand for locally produced sugar, Montinola said.

They will also ask him to strengthen the laws that are meant to benefit the sugar industry such as the Bio-fuels Law of 2006 and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, through its proper implementation, he said.

Zubiri had earlier lamented the government's slow implementation of these two laws that he authored, saying it could boost the survival of the country's sugar industry in 2015 when the tariff on imported sugar is lifted.

Zubiri, whose father is from Kabankalan City, has been considered a champion of the sugar industry, and a member of CONFED, which is the biggest sugar confederation in the country. — THE FREEMAN