Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri, in a privilege speech Monday, August 15, 2022, urged the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to investigate the recently exposed irregularities at the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and asked its high ranking officials to resign.
The senate president said that the recent fiasco has put a spotlight not only on the SRA’s blatant disregard for the local sugar industry, but also on its bald-faced attempts to usurp authority.
He called on the Blue Ribbon Committee to open an investigation and get to the bottom of what he called a “shameful incident”, and see whether cases need to be filed against the persons involved.
Zubiri also mentioned the alleged “tong-pats” or a corruption scheme involving sugar importation where bribes worth P50 to P100 per bag of imported sugar are sought.
According to the senate president, the 300 metric tons of sugar is six million bag and at P100/bag bribe, that translates to P600 million.
