LEADERS of the sugar industry in Negros Occidental are hoping that incoming President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would appoint a Negrense to become the next head of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed), said Negros produces at least 65 percent of the country’s sugar output.If the new SRA head is a Negrense, Lamata said, local planters will no longer have a hard time airing issues that are affecting the country’s sugar industry.Lamata stressed the new SRA head should also be favorable to the local sugarcane farmers, a supporter of the Marcos administration, a pro-consumer, and pro-trader.Earlier, Lamata, along with other leaders in the sugar industry, have been actively calling for the removal of SRA head Hermenegildo Serafica.The call to remove Serafica stemmed over Sugar Order No. 3 which authorized importing 200,000 metric tons of refined sugar into the country.Aside from their call for a Negrense SRA head, Lamata is also hoping that Marcos would find a way to fix other issues affecting the sugar industry such as the rising cost of diesel and fertilizers.Lamata emphasized that the government should find a way to make diesel and fertilizer cheaper so as to lighten the burden of the sugarcane farmers.Earlier, Fifth District Congressman-elect Emilio Dino Yulo III called on Marcos to appoint a Negrense to head the SRA.”It is important in the sense that if you’re a Negrense you get to feel the overall situation,” Yulo, who is a former SRA Board Member, said.The sugar industry has a lot of stakeholders, not only the sugar planters, he said, adding that “there are also the millers, and laborers, most of them are here in the province.”