SRA CHIEF SAYS
Sugar production falling
but importation unlikely
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela yesterday said the unusually long rainy season is causing a further drop in the country’s sugar production, but allayed fears that it will lead to the country’s having to import sugar.

Coscolluela last week issued Sugar Order No 1-C Series of 2008-2009 amending Sugar Order No. 1-B which terminated the allocation of  4.5 percent of the country’s production as “Dx (world market export sugar)” and converted it to “Dr (world market reserve sugar)” to ensure adequate domestic supply.

The planters estimate the current drop in sugar production in Panay at 25 percent, Negros – 20 percent and in other sugar producing areas from 10 to 15 percent, he said.

Executive director Emil Sadain of the President’s Bridge Program has requested the Bacolod City government to issue a permit for them to conduct boring tests at the new proposed sites for the flyover projects in Bacolod City.

The new sites being proposed are the junctions of Lacson-Circumferential intersections (Bangga Pepsi), and of Araneta-Magsaysay streets.

In his letter dated Feb. 2, 2009 to Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Sadain said they are seeking a permit involving the two proposed sites in order to fast-track the pre-engineering works by the project consultant, Woodfields Consultants Incorporated, with their employed geotechnical and material testing company.

Two investigators from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas were in Bacolod City during the weekend to gather evidence against the founder and owner of the Legacy Group, Celso delos Angeles, Bacolod lawyer Caesar Distrito said yesterday.

Distrito represents the investors in the Legacy Group of companies in Negros Occidental who are set to file charges against delos Angeles and other top officials of Legacy for the collapse of their investment schemes at the expense of his clients.

The BSP probers were looking for evidence that would directly link delos Angeles to the enticement of investors to Legacy, and two Negrenses issued affidavits for them, Distrito said.