No food versus fuel

Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday lauded the Sugar Regulatory Administration for having helped the PASG seize several hundred bags of refined sugar in Cebu, another indication that the frenzied drive against the entry of foreign sugar remains one of the priority thrusts of the sugar industry.

That and other confiscations had enabled sugar prices to remain high so that the industry can remain confident that they will not be bugged by a drop in domestic sugar prices.

But, at the same time, Zubiri also stressed that the major fight confronting the industry is to work for the elevation of sugar from the sensitive to the highly sensitive list in the Asian Free Trade Agreement.

This is crucial because otherwise, our tariff for imported sugar would plummet to five percent next year and drop to virtually zero by 2010.

“That could be disastrous for the sugar industry,” Zubiri said and he also praised the efforts of Sugar Administrator Rafael Coscolluela and the sugar industry leaders for their determined campaign to have that position pushed through by the government AFTA panel.

The Bukidnon-Negros Occidental senator was the guest speaker in yesterday’s 37th anniversary of the Sugar Industry Foundation Inc. at the Planta Hotel at Araneta Street.

The continued health of the industry is essential for the farmers to be able to continue helping the SIFI with the social amelioration fund program, Zubiri said.

“Without the industry, there will be no SIFI,” he stressed.

That was the reason why the senator, known as “Mr. Biofuel”, went out of his way yesterday to point out that there is no food versus biofuel conflict in the Philippines.

He just did not single out the bioethanol program but also included in his position Jatropha, which is 99.5 percent biofuel.

In the case of the sugar industry, Zubiri pointed out that there is no need “to expand to other areas to be able to produce enough sugarcane as ethanol source material”.

That was why when another senator pointed that sugarcane would dry up as the source food sugar, he pointed out that there are plenty of idle lands which have yet to be planted to the crop.

He cited vast tracts of land in Maguindanao which remains cogonal and not planted to any crop as proof that the Philippines had enough idle lands to cope with added sugarcane plantations.

He presented the audience SIFI photos of vast tracts of uncultivated lands in Bukidnon and other Mindanao areas, including those of the Cagayan Valley in Northern Luzon as still uncultivated.

The criticisms against the food vs. fuel conflict, he said, is being applied to Brazil and the United States.

In the latter, it is because the US is shifting its corn production to ethanol. “It is the most uneconomical thing to do, but that is the reality in the US. And it is boosting by leaps and bounds the price of corn. Understandably, there are complaints that food for cattle, hogs, and animals are being diverted to biofuel production,” Zubiri said.

In the case of Brazil, the reason for the opposition to ethanol is the fact that Brazilians are cutting down the trees in the Amazon region to give way to sugarcane plantations for ethanol.

Brazil, Zubiri said, is already 50 percent dependent on bioethanol for its fuel needs, while the US produces 20 percent of its biofuel from ethanol.

“But, here we have not even started yet on ethanol production, “he added. He lauded the progress of the San Carlos Bioethanol corporation in San Carlos City. It is headed by sugarman Jose Ma. Zabaleta, executive director of the Philippine Sugar Millers Association, who was also presented an award by the SIFI board.

In the case of Jatropha, Zubiri pointed out that it does not need to add lowland areas to the energy crop because it thrives on slopes of mountainous areas and would not eat up areas planted to other crops.

Besides, he pointed out that the plant could yield one liter of biofuel per three kilograms and a hectare of it could yield thousands of Jatropha seeds in only five years.

“So, actually, the food versus biofuel conflict is not applicable to us in the Philippines,” Zubiri added.

As an aside, Zubiri advocated that the SIFI adopt the Philhealth program for sugar farm workers. He said there are already 175,000 families of Bukidnon enrolled in the program.

“Because of the rebates received, we were able to construct three brand-new hospitals in Bukidnon,” he added.

One of these was the state-of-the-art hospital in the Paglaum Village where Bukidnon Governor Jose Ma. Zubiri had said 2,000 homes were constructed jointly with Gawad Kalinga for sugar workers.*

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