Barking at the wrong tree

In fairness to Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, I am putting out his response to my column Tuesday (May 8, 2008) in which I quoted critics of his biofuels program, principally Rep. Roilo Golez.

“The IMF and other biofuel critics are barking at the wrong tree by quickly attacking biofuels for the increase in food prices. Instead they should focus their attacks on the greed and selfish motives of the oil-producing nations or OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) that continue to hoard their petroleum products and increase their prices at the expense of the world.

“With yesterday’s (May 7) record-breaking price of $122 per barrel of crude oil which roughly would translate to P60-65 per litter of fuel — almost three times the amount we were paying two years ago — the oil-producing countries are committing a ‘crime against humanity.’ This has forced nations to produce biofuels in order to survive in the future by being energy-independent. Countries are now sick and tired of being made hostage by these oil- producing nations who do nothing but make a profit from the misery of others. Nations are trying to survive the onslaught of expensive petroleum products.

“The clean-air component of biofuels is an added bonus in biofuel production. With the proper technology, we can produce biofuel at nearly half the cost of fossil fuels. To be exact, it only costs P28 to produce one liter of bioethanol fuel as compared to P50 of imported gasoline, and diesel made from jatropha would cost only P30 per liter as compared to P42 at today’s pump price. Just go to the nearest Shell station selling E10 and you’ll see an immediate P2  discount as compared to unleaded fossil fuel.

“The Philippine biofuels program is unique in the sense that we are learning from the mistakes of other countries in the rush to produce their own biofuel programs. Last Friday I met with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Administrator Rafael Cosculuela of the Sugar Regulatory Commission, Agriculture Usec. Berna Romulo Puyat, PNOC Alternative Fuels Program chair Rene Velasco and his team and a team of experts from the University of the Philippines Los Baños together with Dean Cabanilla, UPLB College of Economics and Management, and we discussed comprehensively the creation of a road map for the Philippine Biofuels Program. We talked of putting safeguards to protect our food security program and ensure the ample supply of food to our people through the following:

“First, banning biofuel feedstock planting in all irrigated and highly productive arable lands.  

“Second, limiting the production of bioethanol gasoline replacement to sugar-producing districts, i.e. utilizing only our excess production of sugar of which we have almost 300,000 tons which will roughly translate to 400 million litters of bioethanol. As a matter of fact we can utilize all our sugarcane to produce bioethanol and we can replace 70 percent of all our gasoline needs and not just 5 percent as claimed by Rep. Roilo Golez. And if we need sugar, then let’s just import it tariff- free, which is actually cheaper since imported sugar costs only P650 per bag as compared to P1,050 per bag produced locally.

“Third, utilizing the almost 4 million hectares of idle cogonal denuded mountain land to plant jathropha or even malunggay to solve our biodiesel needs since these lands are not suitable for rice and  corn due to the marginal sloping nature of the land.

“Promoting feedstock that will not compete with food, and therefore banning the use of corn, wheat, soybean rapeseed and other food crops for the biofuel program. We will make final plans at our next meeting on May 14. As I have said in the past, implemented properly, our biofuels program will become the model in our region. We can and we should follow the lead of Thailand which produces food and biofuels and even exports these across Asia.  I remember that 20 years ago, I had classmates at the UPLB who came from the Thai Ministry of Agriculture, and now they are making their country proud. If the Thais can do it, so can we!”

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Re my column on the YWCA (Saturday, May 10, 2008), James Litton emailed me his pleasant experience with the volunteer organization. “Before and during World War II I lived in the corner of Florida (now M. Orosa) and Isaac Peral (now UN Ave.) streets in Ermita, Manila. The whole block bounded by Taft Ave, Isaac Peral, Florida and San Luis (now T.M. Kalaw) was occupied, as I recall, by the Episcopalian Church. Just across our house was the Episcopalian Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John (where now stands the Holiday Inn Hotel). The YWCA in Isaac Peral stood where now stands the Manila Doctors Hospital.

“The YWCA at Isaac Peral was not just an office but a fully staffed hostel for young women, which contained rooms and even a rather large indoor swimming pool. There were days when this pool was open to young children in the neighborhood, and I swam in it several times.

“As a La Salle student at the time, I, and other students, was warned by our Christian Brother teachers never to go, under pain of mortal sin, to either the YMCA or YWCA. Archbishop Dougherty echoed the same warning to us young school boys. This was a rather bigoted edict, would you not say?”

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