House decision throws impeachment complaint to the streets

The decision by the House rejecting the impeachment against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may have temporarily shut off a Senate investigaton into it. But that does not mean it’s finished. Instead, from all indications, it throws the entire issue to the parliament of the streets. This was already evident with a march which started yesterday led by former President Cory Aquino, Ms. Susan Roces, Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson and other militant forces.

In Negros Occidental, the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center is set to join the nationwide transport strike by September, according to UNDOC’S secretary general Jessie Ortega. Last Tuesday night, Ortega attended the meeting with the movers of the Freedom, Peace and Justice Movement (FPJM)-Negros Chapter, headed by lawyer Rodolfo Parreno. But an immediate split seemed apparent when the Federation of Bacolod City Drivers Association said it won’t join the planned transport strike which will protest the unabated fuel hikes and the non-scrapping of the oil-deregulation law.

There was another issue, Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra said he was disappointed by the House action and called the faithful to offer prayers for enlightment.

Be that as it may, it’s time the country realigns its focus from impeachment to more substantive issues that affect the lives of people.

One million ‘kasla’ seedlings

With the price of oil expected to rise further, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon yesterday informed Negrenses that the provincial government had already planted some one million seedlings of high-value fruit trees, including the Jatropha treets. These are locally known as "Kasla". Its oil-bearing seeds can be converted into biodiesel.

The 1.38 hectares at the Panaad Park and Stadium, according to Provincial Environment Management Officer Edwin Abaniel, has already been planted with 500,000 seedlings. Another provincial nursery in Bunga, Don Salvador Benedicto, will also grow some 100,000 Benguet Pine seedlings.

What may have escaped the notice of most Negrenses was that several sugar leaders, notably chairman Luis Tongoy of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations (Confed) Negros-Panay chapter, and Bob Cuenca, chairman of the Confed Cooperative, had sat down with sugar technologist Teodulfo Infante Wednesday to brainstorm glorious approaches to the alternative fuel problem of the country.

Infante, incidentally, is the president of Gardeco, Inc. Until recently, he was consultant of the Victorias Milling Co., Inc.

Tongoy pointed out that other than ethanol, the need of the sugar industry in Negros Occidental is for bio-diesel which accounts for the bulk of the fuel requirement of most and implements, including tractors.

That was when Infante pointed out that the best solutions to the quest for alternative fuel sources are Palm Oil, Castor Oil, and "Kasla". This is for industrial users.

He proposed a three-tiered plantation approach, palm oil but with "kasla and castor oil seedlings" planted in between the palm oil was how he explained the concept to both.

Infante pointed out that the three trees can be used to produce "methanol which could be mixed with diesel." Castorl oil, which is harvestable in two years, is called here tangan-tangan.

The conference with Infante by the two sugar leaders had started off with a review of the ethanol program and its viability in the face of the certification by the President of the urgency of the National Bioethanol Oil Program measure by Rep. Jose Miguel Zubiri of Bukidnon. Both, however, also pointed out the dillema for some local sugar producers. Should the Ethanol project or plant be site specific? Or should the distillery-mill allow planters to shift from ethanol to sugar, depending on the price behavior? Actually, Agriculture Secretary Domingo Panganiban and Administrator James Ledesma had pointed out that the government had already assigned underdeveloped areas for sugar plantations to feed the raw materials to the proposed bioethanol distilleries. Right now, the first bioethanol plant is the San Carlos Bioethanol Plant in San Carlos City in northern Negros Occidental. A joint project with UK’s Bronzeaok, it is expected to produce 100,00 liters daily by the middle of 2007.

Seaoil and two other small oil players had already started selling a 10 percent ethanol mix with gasoline. The price is reportedly lower than gasoline. The reason – Seaoil has imported ethanol which was brought into the country at only one percent tariff. This was reduced from 10 percent to encourage the fuel mix.

Cuenca and Tongoy, however, pointed out that there is also a need to explore other alternatives for industrial users. Since most of the sugar producers use trucks powered by diesel and tractors. Tongoy said there is just as imperative a need to develop possibly the coco-diesel project.

And, yes, to a certain extent, the "kasla" may partially solve the problem. In short, the race is on for the viable alternative project. And this is something the government and private sectors must address especially in view of the Katrina destruction in the Mexico Gulf coast areas of the US and the closure of 17 oil refineries.

On leave – NBI acting head

Officer-in-charge Primitivo Najera of the Bacolod NBU office said that he has not been relieved from office but he is on leave. That was the explanation by Jax Najera on his absence from his office in an interview with local journalists. Najera had been reported missing since the "Ukay-Ukay" mess erupted in the front pages of local dailies and hit the air waves following verbal jousts with two special investigagors Menci Mamaspas and Edgardo Kawada.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco had already ordered an investigation into the alleged "payola" from "ukay-ukay" traders to several law enforcers in Negros Occidental as claimed by Mamaspas and Kawada. The two, whom Najera had asked to be relieved for undertaking raids of several "ukay-ukay stores here in and in San Carlos City hit back and bared their recovery of a blue book that contained the names of alleged payoffs to some law enforcers. Both also questioned Najera’s having accompanied three "ukay-ukay" traders to Manila to lodge their complaints against the special investigation for the raid. Both claimed they were armed with warrants from MTC Judge Lorna Demonteverde.

Gov. Maranon had reportedly asked Director Wycoco to intervene in the "cold war" at the local NBI office.

CIDG Negros Chief Inspector Marlon Tayaba, asked Mamaspas and Kawada to identify the CIDG personnel who allegedly received payola from the "ukay-ukay" traders. In due time, reportedly said Mamaspas who is still in Manila. Meanwhile, there was a lot of speculation going the rounds of Bacolod coffee shops while no word has been received on the result of the investigation ordered by Wycoco into the "scandal."

Ex-RPA-ABB member owns plot

Boy Ryan Zabal of the Panay News reported that Jerson Tano-an of Ibajay, Aklan, had implicated several persons in the murder of Aklan’s leading lawyer Edgar Calizo in Kalibo last year. In his affidavit before Third assistant provincial prosecutor Apolinar Barrios, Tano-an pointed to his former colleagues in the RPA-ABB as having been involved in the plot to assassinate 45-year-old Calizo who was waylaid Nov. 20, last year, inside his service vehicle in front of his house in Cattleya Streets, Capitol Subdivision.

The plot to kill Calizo reportedly started on Sept. 23, last year, in the House J-lins Gumboc, another RPA-Abb member in Encaradero Street, Poblacion, Ibajay. The former rebel said he and several others went to Kalibo from Murcia town aboard four motorcycles to trail Calizo’s Isuzu Crosswind. He pointed to his companions – three triggermen – the ones who killed Calizo in front of the lawyer’s house. That revelation may trigger a fallout in Aklan, especially between former NPA members and the RPA-ABB.

ADDENDUM. The Tele Tech Ventures, a multi-million peso call center firm, is expected to put up a branch in Dumaguete City, Oriental Negros. The call center will reportedly be put up in the property of Julio Sy in Calindagan along the national highway. Dumaguete City Mayor Agustin Perdices said the firm reportedly committed to invest P130-million for the first year and construct a P60-million building. It expects to hire a minimum of 200 agents for the first year and additional 150 employees two years later, said Oriental Gov. George Arnaiz. That’s a major feat. And we hope that Bacolod will soon push through with plans by a major US firm to also put up a call center in the Occidental Negros capital city.