The recently passed Sugar Order No. 5 of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), as directed by the US-Marcos Jr regime is hugely absurd. The said order allows importation of 240,000 metric tons of white sugar while also exporting 25,300 metric tons of raw sugar to the US at an extremely low price. This liberalization is in compliance of the mandate of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)-World Trade Organization (WTO) even if it entails the destruction of the local sugar industry.

As the Philippines’ “sugar bowl’, Negros island heavily relies on the sugar industry and will be the most affected. This will cause a huge profit loss for sugar cane planters, especially Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) which comprise around 85% of small planters, due to rising costs of production while the price of sugar dwindles.

The sugar liberalization will dislocate livelihoods of the broad Negrosanon masses, especially 380,000 sugar cane workers and 18,000 sugar mill workers who already received inhumane low wages. Their incomes will depreciate further while still struggling to overcome the effects of El Niño, army worm infestation, Kanlaon Volcano eruption, and the recent onslaught of the three consecutive tropical storms.

If the US-Marcos Jr regime continues its sycophancy to the imperialist US and completely allow neoliberal policies, there is an imminent danger that the sugar industry will collapse. Big comprador bourgeoisie traders and Marcos Jr’s cronies will benefit from huge kickbacks and profits from importation, but consequently the Negrosanon masses will suffer hunger and poverty because of the destruction of their livelihood.

Big compradors can take advantage of the collapse of the sugar industry in Negros due to the inability of the ARBs to afford the cost of sugar cane production. As a result, the latter is forced to sell their lands or be reconcentrated back to the despotic landlords and compradors that they have gained through land reform . Especially now that this will be easily expedited by the implementation of Support to Parcelization of Land Individual Titling (SPLIT) program.

Negrosanons who are actively waging protest actions to reject and stop these inhumane policies are being attacked by the reactionary state. The people are being constantly assaulted by continuing militarization by the AFP and PNP in the cities and the countryside. The victims of injustice are agonizing, and almost cannot provide food and needs for their families.

Thus, NDF-Negros calls on the entire Negrosanon people, planters, sugar mill and farm workers, and other democratic sectors to unite and stop the all-out sugar liberalization that leads to the destruction of the island’s economy. The US-Marcos regime must answer from the effects of neoliberal policies that deprive the rights of the exploited and oppressed and favors landlord-compradors, bureaucrat capitalists, and foreign monopoly corporations for huge profits. Likewise the people’s armed struggle must intensify to defeat the terrorist, puppet, treacherous, and oppressive Marcos Jr regime.