Suddenly biofuel
becomes main topic

It is encouraging to note that everybody seems to be focused now on biofuel manufacture as the price of oil zooms upwards. Two senators - Sen. Sergio Osmeña and Sen. Mar Roxas, as well as Sen. Ralph Recto, seem hell-bent on pushing through passage of the National Biofuel Act in the Senate. We just hope that all these do not end in talk but end up in concrete results.

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla announced Monday that Petron is willing to sign a contract with any entity that will commit to produce ethanol from sugarcane.

The caveat - "We are still looking for the legal framework to provide stability for the industry."

The optimistic development is that the Senate is now in the period of amendments to the proposed biofuels bill. Presumably that will enable Sen. Recto to withdraw his opposition to tax breaks since the price of oil had long breached the 40 dollar per barrel.

Recto is correct. Prices of ethanol closely track the price of oil. This column had reported in the past adverted to this phenomenon, especially how the world price of sugar parallel that of oil.

Negros Occidental Governor Joseph Marañon added his voice to the mounting call for the Senate to pass its version of the biofuels act to pave the way for the immediate production of ethanol from sugarcane.

The House had enacted last year the Bioethanol program bill principally authored by Rep. Miguel Zubiri of Bukidnon. Zubiri earlier this year deplored the slow action by the Senate on its counterpart measure - the National Biofuel Act.

The San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. may soon embark on the manufacture of Bioethanol which Petron had signed a memorandum of understanding with to buy its entire ethanol production.

The latest development gathered by this column is the Bronzeoak, the British investor in San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. has already ordered its distilling machine from India. This was confirmed by Luis Tongoy, chair of Confed Negros-Panay Chapter, who said he had heard about that order from India which produces the equipment cheaper than Brazil.

By mandating a 10 percent blend of ethanol with gasoline, the country is expected to save $35 million from its oil import bill.

Also the exploitation of jatropha oil into a biodiesel mix, Presidential Assistant for Region VI Rafael Coscolluela said the country can save more on dollar outflow for imported fossil fuel.

Well, we are crossing our fingers that all these talking activities will convert into positive action soon.

About this time last year, several major investors in ethanol had been coming to Negros to study the feasibility of ethanol production here.

The number of interested investors had dwindled since then. The main reason is the absence of the law. The main point, according to Jose Villanueva of the First Farmers Milling, is that "we can't invest so much P2-billion unless the market is assured and the other parameters are clearly defined."

***

Bacolod athletic delegations seem to have earned a bad reputation for not failing to live up to their contractual obligations to travel agencies for their plane fares to the US.

This time, it was the Domingo Lacson National High School softball team that missed its participation in the Senior League World Series.

The problem is that the DLNHS had yet to pay an outstanding debt of P273,000 to the Jaunts and Journeys Travel Agency of Frederick Pe. And that was for last year's trip yet.

DLNHS principal Esteban Albacea blamed the agency for having set the wrong itinerary to the Little League Philippines so it could release the financial aid from William Sports.

Anyway, that's water under the bridge. That promise that DLNHS could have raised the money in the US to settle their debts with the agency is lumang tugtugin after the scandals of the Paglaum High School softball team last year.

Perhaps, these teams can put up a foundation or any other organization that could handle its finances and not leave it to the athletic officials to get engrossed in raising funds for such trips.

Otherwise, Bacolod teams can end up blacklisted by travel agencies and others as not worth the fuss.

***

Everybody seems to be focused on preparing for next year's elections even when that remains uncertain yet. A lot still depends on the outcome of the Sigaw ng Bayan pushing through its proposal for charter change through People's Initiative, as pointed out by Gov. Marañon.

And, if things clear up on whether the same Commission on Election officials can handle the balloting with the conflict on the computerization of the elections still hanging fire.

Meanwhile, the rules of the game insofar as the Bacolod polls are concerned have been clearly explained by Marañon. The district head of the Nationalist People's Coalition is Mayor Bing Leonardia. Which means that if former Bacolod police chief Vicente Ponteras wants to be it, he must first join the party. And that more or less, closes the door for his aspiration to take on Leonardia.

Simple, no!*

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