Ethanol steering committee set up

"Good morning, Primo. This is Greg Lopez. And I just want to inquire on the progress of the ethanol production proposal. Time is running out on us. The troubles in the Middle East are escalating and we can get our pants burned."

That was the worried query from Greg Lopez, former president of the Philippine Sugar Technologists and director of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He called by long-distance from Chicago where he is now visiting with a son.

I told him that Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) chief James C. Ledesma, acting on the recommendation of the Philippine Sugar Alliance, recently issued Sugar Order No. 8, Series of 2003-04, that set up the Ethanol Program Consultative Committee (EPCC) and the Technical Working Group and Secretariat (TWGS).

As Ledesma pointed out, ethanol is a biofuel that is safe, non-polluting and non-toxic. Its low volatility, he added, saw its increasing use as a fuel blend with gasoline to enhance octane rating and reduce greenhouse emissions. It also provides superior engine performance by preventing engine deposits.

It is Greg who, for over 20 years, has batted for ethanol as a fuel blend and a way to salvage the sugar industry from continued dependence on millgate prices of sugar. Besides, as sugarman Roberto Cuenca pointed out, ethanol is sustainable because it comes from sugarcane.

In short, according to Ledesma, the committee will craft its recommendations to the President and the Cabinet on the possibility of embarking on ethanol manufacture.

The committee will serve as a forum for the discussion and analysis of issues and concerns regarding the development of ethanol as a renewable fuel.

It will also enhance government interest and support for the use of ethanol from sugarcane as an alternative renewable fuel.

The EPCC will also submit recommendations to both the executive and legislative branches for the formulation of a national policy on ethanol as a gasoline octane enhancer and as a renewable supplementary fuel and its inclusion in the medium- and long-term economic plan of the government.

With Ledesma as chairman, the EPCC has the following members: Philippine Sugar Millers Association’s Jose Mari Zabaleta, Philsurin’s Santiago Ureta, with director general Leon Arceo, Confederation of Sugar Producers’ (Confed) Joel Lopa, Unifed’s Nicolas Alonso and Claud Schulze, NFSP’s Ramon Peñalosa and PanayFed’s Emil Reyes.

The other members are Philsucor’s Vicente Castro, Sugar Master Plan’s Archimedes Amarra and SIB’s Jeffrey Mijares.

The EPCC also immediately organized the TWGS with SRA’s Fernando Corpuz as head. Its members are PSMA’s Oscar Cortes, SIEC’s Edna Tajel, Central Azucarera de Tarlac’s Ma. Perpetua Honrado, Confed’s Felixberto Monasterio, SRA’s Lourdes Marajas, Rosalina Tan and Irene Cruz, and Sugar Master Plan’s Jack Alonso.

During the latter part of the martial law regime, the Marcos administration launched the alcogas program in Negros Occidental. It dispatched a team of scientists and technicians to Brazil to study its ethanol fuel program.

Disastrous Experiment

The study group, however, seemed more concerned about serving the alcogas program as a birthday gift to President Ferdinand E. Marcos. And they immediately launched the program to the Negrense vehicle owners.

Except for perfunctory warnings about alcohol’s impact on metallic parts, nothing much was shared with the public about how to reconfigure their vehicles to conform with the new fuel blend of 10 percent alcohol and 90 percent gasoline.

Soon, vehicles stalled on the streets. Demonstrations were staged and Negrenses threatened to riot. It was discovered only later that even the mixing of the blend was left to gravity. Thus, when alcohol was poured into a tanker full of gasoline, only the bouncing of the truck served to mix the two elements. This proved disastrous since most of the gasoline stations were in Bacolod. In short, what was poured into their gas tanks was a mixture different from the 10 percent blend.

Anyway, Brazil and Thailand have been using ethanol as an alternative fuel. The US, for example, manufactures about three billion liters of ethanol per annum. Australia is about to embark on the same program as it moves to reconfigure its sugar industry from exporting crystals to a more viable alternative.

Now that the price of world sugar has gone up to 8¢ per pound and rising, the rising oil prices make ethanol manufacture a viable alternative to just shipping out sugar. And that will also further increase sugar production which has proven to be virtually unstoppable with the gains achieved so far.

Anyway, ethanol seems to be the only solution to our dollar outflow. If we save just 10 percent of our oil bills, that could translate into a big amount of savings, Lopez pointed out.

The Massacre

Massacre. That was the cry that alerted Negrenses last week. Immediately, several nursed images of bodies scattered around. Human bodies?

No, the massacre victims were some 47 fighting cocks of planter-businessman Danilo Hinlo in Punta Salong, Manapla. Inspector Gary Alan Resuma estimated Hinlo’s losses at P480,000.

That Sunday assault on his cockfarm was staged by two armed men who introduced themselves as New People’s Army members. When they entered the farm, the duo told caretaker Jerry Prudente that they would slaughter the fighting cocks for Hinlo’s refusal to pay taxes.

Later, several of their colleagues joined the two and started chopping off the heads of the fighting cocks or breaking their wings and legs.

The rebels also reportedly torched the tractor of a sugar planter in Barangay Caduha-an in Cadiz City.

It was not clear how the slaughtered cocks were treated afterwards. But the possibility is that there may have been a fiesta in the surrounding communities of Punta Salong.

Each fighting cock was worth about $5,000.

C’est la vie.