This is our main event today in Cebu City as I’m guest speaker of the Philippine Sugar Technologists Association, Inc.’s 64th Annual National Convention.
I took this opportunity to encourage the sugar industry to be strong amid the rapid developments such as the proposed sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) tax, and the consistent attempts to smuggle sugar products in the country.
Sugar farmers and stakeholders may feel challenged at the moment, but I assured them that we are doing all efforts – in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, and as principal author of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Law and Sugar Industry Development Act in the Senate – to protect the industry.
