Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday stressed that the production of biofuel will not contribute to the country's food shortage, and will, in fact, save the sugar industry from collapse in 2010.

Zubiri, who is in Negros Occidental for the Sinulog Festival of Kabankalan City , also stressed the importance of pushing ahead with the Philippine's production of biofuel amid the rising prices of gasoline.

Biofuel will provide renewable energy, environmental protection, and sustainable livelihood programs for the rural poor, he said.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has expressed concern that the country's production of biofuel that is land-based will eventually compete with food, and that corporations are already searching for millions of hectares for jatropha alone.

Dr. Hertmut Michel, the 1998 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, also states that investing in biofuel development is counterproductive.

But Zubiri said people should not take the word of foreign scientists who base their findings on the situation in Europe hook line and sinker. They should also listen to local scientists from the University of the Philippines in Los Baños and the Department of Agriculture, he said.

He also pointed out that Nobel laureate Al Gore, former vice president of the United States , is, in fact, a supporter of biofuel production.

Provisions are in place in the Biofuels Act that ensures the protection of food security at all times, he said.

The DA is tasked to certify that biofuel projects do not eat into existing food production areas, it is just a matter of implementing the law, he said.

So the use of jatropha and sugarcane for biofuels will not affect the country's food needs, he said.

“We have no conflict in the use of jatropha for biodiesel because it is being planted on non agricultural idle cogonal lands,” he said, citing formerly logged over highly slopping lands

Planting jatropha is a biofuels and reforestation program already being implemented in India and it seems to be working, he said.

And using sugarcane for ethanol will not deprive the country of its sugar needs, in fact by 2010 with the lifting of tariffs, cheap imported sugar will be entering the country, he said.

The Philippine sugar industry will be in trouble in 2010 when tariff on imported sugar entering the country is lifted, unless an alternative use of sugarcane is in place, he said.

With the tariffs lifted on imported sugar, local sugar prices now at above P1,000 per 50 kilobag could drop to P650, he said.

With ethanol production in place sugarcane producers will have an alternative with the use of their sugarcane for ethanol production, he said. They would then be able to earn and equivalent of about P950 to P1,000 for the production of ethanol with the same amount of cane used for a 50 kilobag of sugar, he said.

“Instead of throwing insults at each other let's come up with alternatives for this industry,” he said.

Zubiri denied the claim of Santiago that he is pushing for the biofuels industry because his family has large tracks of sugarcane land in Bukidnon.

“That is a wrong assumption because we have not planted sugarcane since 2002, we are now banana farmers, they are free to inspect our farms,” he said.

But he stressed that he does not want to pick a fight with Santiago , he just wants to discuss the issues.

“I may not be an expert in legal and constitutional issues but at least give me the respect of being well versed in the fields of agriculture and the environment, which have been my advocacy in my ten years in congress,” he said.

“They are saying it is a crime to get involved in biofuels, my question is it a crime to look for alternative livelihood programs for my constituents in Bukidnon and the 5 million constituents that we have in the country who will suffer in 2010,” he said.

“If that is a crime then put me in jail,” he said.

Zubiri said because of claims of some foreign scientists $3 to 4 billion in investments in biofuels and the creation of about 30,000 to 50,000 jobs could be affected, he said.

The Sugar Alliance of the Philippines , in a statement, said sugar producers have even increased their output well beyond local demands to douse fear expressed by some sectors that the excitement on biofuels may cause sugar producers to shift their entire focus and resources from producing sugar to producing biofuels.

The food security will not be affected in so far as the sugar industry is concerned because although biofuels offer diversification opportunities, sugar is and always will be the industry's main project, he said.

SAP also pointed out that the areas being developed for bioethanol feedstock production are mostly unproductive marginal lands.

Many of these lands have remained idle or underutilized, SAP pointed out.*CPG

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