Sebastian says he remains undersecretary of agriculture
Leocadio Sebastian, who signed the allegedly unauthorized resolution importing 300, 000 metric tons of sugar remains as the undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture.
Sebastian told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing Tuesday his resignation was not accepted by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Sebastian said he is still under 90 days preventive suspension after Senator Risa Hontiveros asked if his resignation was accepted by the president.
"As of now, I have been informed that I am on preventive suspension for 90 days," he said.
Senator Francis Tolentino, the chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, ordered Sebastian to submit before the committee the written copy of his preventive suspension.
It can be recalled that Sebastian submitted his resignation last August 11, 2022 after the Palace nullified the issuance of Sugar Order no. 4 which allowe the importation of 300,000 MT of sugar on August 9.
During the hearing, Sebastian added that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez were personally informed about the sugar importation during their meeting early this month.
This was contrary to the claim of Rodriguez that the Palace was only informed about the Sugar Order No. 4 when it was posted at the SRA website.
"The sugar shortage, supply shortage is greatly manifested by the rising price of sugar your honor and this was already giving a lot of concern from different sectors, from the private sector, from the industry, even from the other departments of government were already expressing their concerns. This was tackled during our meeting in Malacanang on August 1, 2022," he said.
"There were two things that the President wanted to act fast, your honor which he expressed during that meeting. That is one, redirect classification. We have to do it as soon as possible, reclassification from reserved to domestic use of sugar. Second, the need to augment our local supplies through importation," he added.
Sebastian noted that former SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica was also ordered by Marcos to prepare a sugar importation program.
"The President agreed there's a need to consider that. In fact, Administrator Serafica was given instruction to start preparing a sugar importation program," he said.
"In addition to that there was also the August 4 meeting where I got the feedback although I was not in that meeting, I got a feedback from Administrator Serafica when he emailed me that he was instructed to actually draft the sugar importation program by the President," Sebastian noted.
"And if you are instructed to draft the sugar importation program, your honor, that means they are already aware that there's an importation that has been planned or even the number that is supposed to be imported, is already they've already been informed about it, your honor," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
