Jul 7, 2025
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – A confluence of economic pressures and agricultural woes is casting a dark cloud over Negros Island, as the start of the tiempo muerto (off-milling season) threatens to aggravate hunger, heighten unrest, and squeeze the region’s already fragile economy.
Beginning this July, more than 300,000 hacienda laborers, along with thousands of sugar mill workers and truckers, will be sidelined as the island’s 13 sugar centrals shut down operations until the next cropping season.
Tiempo muerto, the three-month lull between harvest and milling, has long been a routine part of the sugar industry's cycle. But this year, with inflation still surging and a persistent infestation worsening, the hardship is expected to get worse than usual.
Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice president Frank Carbon warned that this year’s tiempo muerto may inflict more economic damage. He cited a projected 30% decline in purchasing power due to what he called “depressed demand” throughout the Negros Island Region (NIR).
Carbon told Rappler on Sunday, July 6, that the effects will ripple through food, transportation, and fuel sectors, with consumers prioritizing only essentials like rice and viands. “Then, between P150 to P200 million income will be lost from diesel, tire, spare part businesses in three-month time,” Carbon said.
Compounding the situation is a worsening infestation of red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI), a pest that has already ravaged over 2,300 hectares of sugarcane farms in Negros Island and parts of Western Visayas. As of July 2, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) reported RSSI outbreaks in at least 20 towns and cities, placing both large plantations and smallholders at risk.
“Though tiempo muerto is a routinary season in the sugar industry, yet, this year is a bit awful,” Carbon said, “considering that the country is still reeling from inflation due to unceasable economic crunch across the country.”
Carbon added that the infestation may leave a deeper scar on the next cropping cycle from October 2025 to June 2026, particularly among agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who lack the logistics to mount pest control efforts.
While SRA has started pesticide spraying operations, the agency admitted the pest remains “uncontrollable as of the moment.”
SRA officials also said underreporting of RSSI presence among sugar planters may be concealing a much broader crisis.
Department of Agriculture-NIR director Albert Barrogo said his agency has alerted the Department of Agrarian Reform to identify ARBs whose farms are infested and provide assistance. He added that coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment is underway to support displaced laborers.
“If RSSI won’t be contained in the coming days, it might migrate to other crops in the island, and may also ravage palay and corn plantations,” Barrogo warned. “We need to prepare for this possible scenario. If SRA takes care of sugar plantations, DA will focus on rice, corn, among other high-value crops.”
Meanwhile, the police in Negros Occidental have begun preparing for what officials fear could be a rise in property crimes driven by hunger and joblessness.
Colonel Rainerio de Chavez, director of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO), told Rappler on Sunday that his team has deployed officers across key areas in anticipation of increased incidents such as theft, robbery, burglary, shoplifting, and vehicle theft.
“This proactive approach is part of our ongoing efforts to thwart the nefarious activities of criminal elements,” De Chavez said.
He noted that crime in the province had declined by 13.10% in 2024 compared to the previous year, or from 4,471 recorded incidents in 2023 to 3,885 this year, and he wants to keep that trend going.
De Chavez said, “We want this momentum to be sustained for the current year with or without tiempo muerto.” – Rappler.com