Action sought vs.
drop in RP sugar production
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Sugar Board will take up the call of the National Federation of Sugarcane Producers to stop the allocation of 4.5 percent of the Philippines’ sugar classified as “Dx” for export to the world market today, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela said yesterday.

Effective on the week ending Dec. 7, 2008, Sugar Order No. 1-B split the original 7 percent “D (world market)” allocation into 4.5 percent “Dx” for export and 2.5 percent for food exporters, Coscolluela said.

Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, in a letter to Coscolluela yesterday, said that, based on SRA’s production figures, there has been a steady decline in the country’s raw sugar production for three consecutive weeks starting Dec. 7.

Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco yesterday said he has asked the Capitol department heads to submit their programs for 2009 so he can identify the projects to be prioritized this year.

“We need to know where the P194 million fund for development programs will go,” he said after meeting with the department heads yesterday.

Zayco said that after they submit their lists of programs, he will review them, and determine which will be prioritized.

ILOILO CITY – Robbers killed an Australian businessman after taking more than P1.4 million in cash and jewelry from his home in Ajuy town, Iloilo after midnight Tuesday.

Werner Holz, 62, died from at least 20 stab wounds after he fought with three robbers in the master's bedroom of his house in Barangay Pili in Ajuy, Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz, Iloilo provincial police director, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Ajuy is around 87 kms northeast of Iloilo City.