A case for Ethanol, RP's fuel of the future!

Manila: While we were at the top floor of the Manila Intercon for the annual stockholder's meeting of Globe Telecom, I took a peek outside. You'd think there was another coup in the offing, with so many soldiers, policemen and firemen surrounding the Oakwood Hotel with sirens wailing. It turned out that this was Mayor Jejomar Binay's earthquake drill, with Makati City in the middle of an earthquake. It was the first time I heard of any major city in this country that did a drill.

The fact that they held a drill at all was enough to call it a success. I know that Japan holds a lot of fire, earthquake or even tsunami drills, and so do most highly industrialized countries. Now do I hear anyone making a suggestion that we should also have one here in Cebu? Let's hear from the smart ones!

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Last Friday during the Full Council meeting of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7), held at the Ecotech Center, the Energy Department presented its Energy program. I especially focused on their plans for alternative fuels. Call it timely that we already began writing about the benefits of Ethanol a couple of weeks ago, so I was curious as to what kind of plans our government bureaucrats have in store for our country.

An Energy undersecretary whose name I failed to secure rattled off their plans and for Ethanol, they were aiming for a 5% blend with gasoline for the year 2007 raising up to 10% blend by the year 2010. I was aghast that these government bureaucrats have put Ethanol at the lowest priority in our energy programs at a time when a barrel of oil has reached US$70!

Obviously, these bureaucrats were contended with our present oil programs, where the whole nation (and most of the western world) is at the mercy of the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC). They do not realize that Ethanol could be the savior of the Philippines because its main source comes from sugar and we've got plenty of that here. I hope they're not protecting the interest of OPEC?

During the RDC briefings, we learned that the economy of Region VII has grown despite the political turmoil, but only agriculture was down. What was revealing is the admission by the Energy undersecretary that they don't even talk with the Agriculture Department. That means, no one in this government is even thinking of using Ethanol for any practical use at all. No wonder we are a poor country. We're being run by lousy bureaucrats. That's what happens when you put the wrong people in important government positions.

Brazil is the only nation on earth that boasted that pretty soon, they would soon be fully independent from OPEC, thanks to their widespread use of Ethanol. Best of all, we do not need to invent any new technology; all we need to do is follow the example set up by Brazil. Alas, our government bureaucrats are so comfortable that the government pays their salaries regardless whether they can help make this country better or not.

The problem perhaps lies upon the fact that the people in our government, both administration and opposition have concentrated too much on ugly politics. They have forgotten the more important problems of this country. If we came up with a credible Ethanol program, pretty soon, the Philippines too can join Brazil and claim to be independent from foreign oil and domination. If and when that happens, we won't see red banners marching on the streets demanding for an oil price rollback because we are going to make it mandatory for jeepneys and tricycles to use Ethanol fuel.

When there is money in the countryside, squatters living in urban centers who come from the countryside would go home and depopulate our cities. Perhaps the best thing that would happen if we finally make a program for Ethanol is that, we would save our precious US dollars that we use to buy foreign oil, while at the same time solving our problems of pollution.

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Last Tuesday evening, I saw an interview in Straight Talk with Mr. Gerd Udo Hauser, Director for External Affairs and Public Policy of Daimler Chrysler AG who said that Mercedes Benz cars, the A class and the B class are apparently using Abaca fiber from Leyte for use in underbody panels. Abaca from the Philippines apparently is comparable to fiberglass in tinsel strength. Daimler Chrysler already sent a team to Leyte and found that Abaca when processed can be used as a major parts components of automobiles and yes, they are in widespread use in Mercedes Benzes. When will our bureaucrats wake up to the reality that we can solve our energy problems ourselves and that agriculture is a major key to our economic growth?

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