On gas tanks and stomachs

What’s the difference between a “center” and a “capital”? Saturday in Bacolod City, the author of the now controversial Biofuels Law, now Sen. Miguel Zubiri, announced that Negros Occidental would be the biofuels center of the Philippines. Pointing to his roots in this province, Zubiri said he wants other provinces to see that Negros is leading the way in the production of alternative fuels.

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In fact the role of Zubiri in the enactment of this law was what made Negros sugarmen consider immediately the possibility of growing jatropha and plan on setting up factories for the conversion of this plant seeds into fuel. While in Bacolod, Zubiri also said it will save the sugar industry from collapse. That must have gladdened the hearts of sugarmen no end. Because even if traditional sugar planters are used to the ups and downs of sugar prices in the world market, this time, most of them can no longer be sure that any downslide will not be a permanent one.

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But what is this report in the Daily Inquirer yesterday with the headline “Laguna eyed as RP biodiesel capital”? The report said that Zubiri himself had announced plans “to fund a biodiesel project in Laguna that would make the province’s fourth district the country’s biodiesel capital”. Zubiri, the news report also said, made this announcement during a farmers forum held in the town of Magdalena, where he was the special guest. Zubiri was also the guest of honor at the Panaad Festival here.

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Meanwhile, pronouncements from the United Nations seem to focus more on the problem of food production than on fuel generation. The latest statement confirming this came out in the latest issue of Time Magazine (April 28, 2008), where World Bank President Robert Zoellick was quoted as saying “While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others are worrying about filling their stomachs”. The president of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Jaques Diouf, was also quoted in yesterday’s Philippine Star as warning about civil wars over food.

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There could be something about the speculations of biofuel advocates that some lobby must be going on against this new product and one could only look to the oil producers as the suspects. In the same way that pharmaceutical companies are believed to be the obstructionists behind the passage of the cheaper medicines bill here, the oil people must know how their industry would be affected if and when alternative fuels are produced and provide a substitute for the product they control now. Both ways, we are in for a long struggle in these two issues. Meanwhile, the price of fuel went up another 50 centavos the other day. This is said to be the eighth time this year that prices have gone up. And where the price of fuel goes, there go the prices of food and other commodities, too.

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Meanwhile, the few veterans of World War II who are still alive have greeted the approval by the United States of the bill that would give them the benefits they have agitated for in the past six decades. I tried to read through the news item on the bill, but could not see any provision for its retroactivity in the case of those who have gone from this world already. If there is really none, then this could have been the calculated plan, to wait until there will only be a few veterans left to pay. I also did not see – but this is based in news reports only, since we have no access to the bill itself – if the ones who have been receiving a bit of pension will be able to avail of some differential up to the date of its approval.

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The many friends of former barangay captain Roming Escalona, who died suddenly Tuesday, may not have known that his remains will be laid to rest today, Monday at the Rolling Hills Memorial Park after an 8:30 a.m. mass at the Church of the Triumph of the Holy Cross. Roming was the barangay captain of Barangay 38, to which our family belongs. A true and loyal friend, and a very concerned leader, we will miss him and his very solicitous friendship. May he rest in peace.*

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