Ethanol may save RP’s foreign exchange outflow

Delegates to the 51st Philippine Sugar Technologists’ Convention in Cebu City last week were all excited about the ethanol fuel program and its prospects of cutting down the outflow of dollars at a time when the country is experiencing a budgetary deficit.

Its day has come. Tomorrow, the newly organized Philippine Fuel Ethanol Alliance will formally launch the program at the Mandarin Oriental Manila at 6 p.m., according to Philippine Millers’ Association executive director Joe Marie Zabaleta.

The affair will include a brief presentation about the prospects of ethanol in the country, a new global milestone in the drive toward genuine sustainable development.

Although sketchy, the Zabaleta invitation to me waxed poetic in pointing out that the Philippine Fuel Ethanol Alliance will be an important catalyst in promoting environmental protection, employment generation, economic growth, rural development and energy security in the country.

The program, he said, is "To Clean the Air in our Cities and Create Jobs in the Countryside."

Archimedes Amarra, Sugar Masterplan Foundation executive director, however, said the sugar industry is studying the possibility of putting up a P150-million ethanol processing plant that will use sugarcane as raw material in the manufacture of the environmentally friendly fuel additive.

The plant is reportedly envisioned to produce from 20,000 to 50,000 liters of ethanol per day, or 200 million liters annually.

This could be blended with gasoline to improve vehicles’ octane rating and help trim down the volume of oil imports by five percent. That could mean a substantial savings in dollar outflow, the study pointed out.

Actually, Brazil has long been using ethanol at 24 percent blend. Thailand will use ethanol next year at five percent blend. But that country has already mandated that government vehicles use the ethanol-gasoline blend as fuel.

A total of 12 countries have already either consumed or exported ethanol. The United States and European communities have been into ethanol manufacture. And Japan imported last year 400 million liters of ethanol, mostly from Brazil which also exported last year some 250 million gallons of the fuel.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel recently introduced Senate Bill 1077 that seeks to improve the condition of the sugar industry. It also encourages mass production of ethanol as an alternative transport fuel.

The Department of Energy has endorsed SB 1077 which also calls for the creation of a national fuel ethanol program. This is similar to the National Alcogas Program of the 1970s.

Zabaleta stressed the importance of legislation mandating ethanol’s use and calling for incentives in its production.

The issue is simple — ethanol guarantees a sustainable source of energy. In short, no need to dig deep into the bowels of the earth for fossil fuel.

Troubled Peace

There was tension in Western Visayas between the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army. The reason: the assassination of the RPA’s regional commander in Western Visayas and his 16-year-old daughter in Makato, Aklan last Sunday.

Lualhati Carapali, the national commander of the RPA-ABB, said they are looking into all possible angles of the killing and are not discounting the involvement of the CPP-NPA in Batoy’s death. The RPA regional commander, he added, had been included in the NPA’s order of battle, along with other ranking officers of the "splitist" group.

He added that the conflict between the two rebel groups could escalate if the NPAs continue their terrorist activities.

Daniel Batoy, alias Ka Mokong, 45, and his daughter, Diana, were on board a motorcycle when they were ambushed in Barangay Tina in Makato, Aklan.

Diana, according to Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman, was an active member of the Sangguniang Kabataan of Ibajay town.

She also said that "we lost a strong peace advocate" in Batoy whom she hailed as a diligent and consistent worker who advocated for the dividends and benefits of the peace agreement between the government and the RPA.

Luis Jalandoni, a defrocked priest and chief negotiator of the National Democratic Front, denied knowing who was responsible for the death of Batoy.

Three men on board a motorcycle fired at Batoy and his daughter. Their bullet wounds were in the back although the fatal wound for Batoy was in the head, apparently a finishing shot.

Carapali stressed that "we are not declaring war against the CPP-NPA but are merely taking an active defensive position. This means we will not wait to be liquidated. If there is a threat to us, we will fire first."

The PNP has set up Task Force Mokong to investigate the killing and run after the killers, according to Aklan police director Odelargo Magayanes.

Magayanes theorized that Batoy may have earned the ire of the NPA because he had been cooperating with the government and running after them.

For the moment, it is another summer in Western Visayas. Both camps were reported bracing for a possible showdown.

American Ex-Officer In Watchlist

The Bureau of Immigration’s local sub-office recommended the inclusion of a former American officer in the bureau’s watchlist after he was charged with illegal possession of firearms, explosives and ammunition.

Alien control officer Cita Chuvy Arguelles said only the court can issue a hold departure order against Russ Robinson, 31, a former US Marine Corps lieutenant married to Janette Segun, owner of the Blue Eagle Security Agency.

Robinson and several employees of the security agency were arrested last Sunday at a police checkpoint in Sagay City with a cache of high-powered firearms aboard two vehicles. The cache included two M-16 rifles, an Uzi machine pistol, four 9-mm. pistols, a caliber .40 pistol, two rifle grenades, 1,000 rounds of assorted ammunition and night-vision goggles.

The Sagay MTC ordered the release of Robinson, Laiza Pepito and Reynaldo Jardeliza after they posted bail of P40,000 each.

The Sagay police filed criminal charges against Robinson and his seven companions with the Cadiz City Regional Trial Court.

Arguelles scotched reports that Robinson had left Negros Occidental. "He is in Bacolod," she told this writer yesterday noon during a television interview over the Negros Info Channel.

In a related development, police filed a complaint for illegal possession of firearms against a dismissed Army soldier and his civilian companion with the prosecutor’s office of La Carlota City.

Col. Julius Penaflorida, a discharged member of the 7th Infantry Battalion, and Gary Macanan, were arrested by the 3rd Provincial Mobile Group in a buy-bust operation in La Carlota City.

Chief Inspector Iver Apellido said they seized from the two a KG 99 machine pistol with 15 rounds of ammunition and a caliber .45 Norinco pistol with eight bullets.

Both are now locked up in the La Carlota City jail.

Scandalous Delay

Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Ricardo Arlianza was taken aback yesterday when a lawyer of Negros landowners reported that the DAR has 10,000 pending accounts of Himamaylan City alone, representing unprocessed voluntary offers to sell farmlands.

The landowners also complained about the "illegal issuance" of certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs), when the landowners had not yet been paid for their properties and the titles not cancelled yet. They urged the speedier disposition of these cases to also protect their interest.

They also urged that DAR to prioritize the resolution of VOS cases before compulsory acquisition.

I shall tackle the results of yesterday’s meeting between Undersecretary Arlianza and the landowners. But there were a lot of bruising issues raised by the landowners who felt that they have been discriminated against by DAR policies and the slow pace of payment processing.