FORMER Agriculture secretary and Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) Board Chairman Leonardo Montemayor urged the Department of Agriculture to drop its plan to import more sugar, saying President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. has not been given full information behind the decision to bring in more than 64,000 metric tons of refined sugar.

'They should not proceed with it. It does not make sense. It will only create additional pressure, especially on our producers. The arrival of the sugar imports will be in March, which is still the milling season, but the announcement of it now will have a dampening effect on the prices of producers. It dismays and only discourages our producers. It is a puzzling development, unless there are some forces at work. Why are they doing that? Are they hiding anything?' he asked.