By Telly G. Ocampo
Can Sugar Be Sweet Again!
Information last week gave us a dark picture of the sugar shortage in the country and it was and it is still very surprising because we are a sugar producing country.
I remember years back, when there was a similar situation – a shortage. That was the time of the martial law years, I’m very sure. But the shortage in those years was caused by a very low price of sugar abroad. Because of that situation, there was no market anymore for sugar and sugar farmers refused to plant the. There was even sugar rationing. And I also remember Corazon Banluta Batoy bringing us white sugar from her family. The latter had its allocation of the ration from the bank where her husband, Cardo, worked – at the Philippine National bank.
Subic is a sugar producing city. Unlike Negros at that time, Subic economy does not rely just on sugar. They are into multicropping. They have copra, rice, pineapple, and vegetables; and livestock, too.
If this is the situation in our country, how can sugar be sweet now? Its price has soared high up to 100 pesos per kilo. How can we ever continue surviving when all prices of commodities have gone up?
I grew up with the tira-tira. People of my age would surely know what tira-tira is. Children nowadays don’t know what tira-tira is all about.That’s raw sugar, not refined.That’s also called muscovado or kinugay. That’s the sugar used for tira-tira. The raw sugar is cooked in coconut milk until the milk becomes sticky and the sugar, brittle. Then it is rolled according to its form and it is wrapped using the unas or dried banana leaf. But for a finer look, the unas is re-wrapped in red Japanese paper. During our younger days, we preferred the tira-tira wrapped in red Japanese paper because as we licked the candy, the color of its wrapper would stick to our lips making us look like we had lipstick on – a la Cinderella!
Before, every time I was asked by my Lola Danday to buy centrifugal or brown sugar, I would chose the kinugay. Ngano man? Naa man goy bugon mataban sa kinugay nga mura na ug tira-tira. Malipay na ko mukaon adto. Kaming mga kabataan, malipay na mukaon adto.
Now, a senate investigation is going on regarding the shortage of sugar. Mosamot na gyud nga dili na kita makahimo ug tira-tira. It is alleged that we have enough supply of sugar and the shortage is caused by some people allegedly hoarding the product. Pagkapait gayud. A huge supply of the product arrived from Thailand thru Subic using a recycled import permit and due to this, six customs officials were suspended.
Pero hangtud kanus-a kaha ang ilang suspension? Until when? When the issues have died down? They will, eventually, be back to their position, too, and/or willbe transferred to another post elsewhere. Is this not economic sabotage? How else are we going to call this?
There was a time when sugar was placed in bagol just like salt. We called this Kamay Binagol. And this used to be abundant at the market in Calape, just as Asin Binagol was abundant at the market in Albur. But now, these two have become a vanishing craft.
How I wish we could be transported back to those times – those times of the Kamay Binagol ug Asin Binagol; those times when 10 pesos was enough for a day’s budget for food; those times when we didn’t have gadgets but we got the necessary information we needed; those times, when we didn’t have solar lights but we could play under the moonlight night with no fear of kidnappings or what not; those times when even if our parents didn’t shout to call us, we were always ready to heed to their signals of “Come home now”.
Yes, those times when everything was tinakus except pork and beef. I don’t know where the gantangan is now. It used to be an instrument for measurement of rice. Kumpleto akong Lola Danday adto nga taksanan. There was ½ and 1/4 taksanan.Tinakus pud ang edible oil ug kerosene.
The lines of a song come to mind:
Roses are red, Violets are blue,
Sugar is Sweet my Love
but not as Sweet as You.
Anaa pa ba ning awita ron?Tam-is pa ba ang asukal karon?