“Every time we choose silence because speaking up is uncomfortable, someone else speaks for us. Every time we refuse to take a firm position because we are afraid of offending someone, someone else makes the decision for us. And every time we put our individual interests ahead of the collective interest of the industry, we become weaker.”
Aurelio J. Valderrama Jr. crystallized this poignant advocacy in his speech on Wednesday, September 16 after he was reelected the second time to serve his third 2-year term covering crop years 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 as president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations Inc. (CONFED).
The sugar industry is besieged by the destructive sap-sucking Red-striped Soft Scale Insect (RSSI) among sugarcane plantations. Meanwhile, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) seems hard-pressed for a decisive action to alleviate the low millgate prices of raw sugar that haunted the industry all through the last milling season.
CONFED is the country’s leading federation in volume of sugar production. It is allied with the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) and Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PANAYFED) through their establisment of the Sugar Council.
In turn, the Sugar Council collaborates with the sugar industry’s leading labor organizations like the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry (NACUSIP) and the Democratic Alliance of Labor Organizations (DALO).
