We need alternatives

I HAVE never denied that I am a scion from a sugar producing family. That my great-grandfather was planting sugarcane in the fields of Kabankalan, Negros almost 90 years ago. But I abhor the maliciousness of the VERA report by suggesting that my family today would greatly benefit from the Biofuels Law. How could we, when all our lands have been voluntarily, let me repeat, voluntarily given to the CARP program and whatever land left to us allowed by the law to retain, we leased to DOLE for banana production for the last 4 years. Definitely before the law was approved on 2006, so there is no conflict of interest.

If the authors did any serious investigating and visited the area they will see the obvious that it’s all planted to bananas and that the provincial assessor has not updated their records. My remaining eight hectares of land cannot be classified as plantation but a modest farm and what saddens me the most is our family complied with the CARP law since 1988 and supported its turnover to farmer beneficiaries, one of the first to do so, and yet the story that pictures our family as sugar barons with sinister motives is a blatant lie.

Instead of being congratulated for being the first to comply with the CARP Law, we are now being maligned by the VERA Article and those behind their agenda. Even the insinuation that my father has some control of Busco or Bukidnon Sugar-milling Company is completely false. All ties to that company have been severed since 1988. Since then it has been owned by Filipino-Chinese businessmen and whatever transaction they do either on sugar or ethanol is their business and we have nothing to do with it. My fear is that while staunchly advocating the Renewable Energy Bill in the Senate, some major fossil fuel energy producer will construe my mere ownership of a solar water heater as a conflict of interest.

And let me put on record that there is no provision in the Biofuels Act that would violate or shortcut the CARP program. I wish that the authors of the story had read the law which will show nothing on land conversion and exemptions from CARP. On the contrary, it is the CARP beneficiaries tilling three hectares of sugar land that will benefit from the higher value and pricing of their sugar crops for biofuels. What frustrates me is that it seems we have become a nation of fault-finders.

The issue here is fuel. Do we produce it? Negative. Are we ready to survive if oil imports stop? Negative. Do we have alternatives to that? Yes, but are we prepared to implement it? Not only am I trying to find an alternative to help solve our fuel crisis but also solutions that would help our sugar farmers survive the impact of the implementation of the Asean Free Trade Agreements which will flood cheap subsidized sugar in our local markets possibly killing our local sugar industry and rendering almost 5 million farmers, laborers and dependents from Luzon , Visayas and Mindanao helpless. Such a catastrophic event could lead to a massive urban migration or spur the increase of insurgency in the countryside. I’m looking for alternative and viable sources of income for our countrymen as well as for Lumad communities who have thousand of hectares of sloping mountain land that have no forest left after being logged over during the 70s and 80s.

Critics of the biofuels program should provide us with solutions to those problems rather than trying to shoot the messenger.

Time and time again, I’ve said, if implemented properly, biofuels will not compete with food since the feedstock to be used is sugarcane of which we have an oversupply, sending the excess production for export at super low prices. We have enough excess sugar to supply the 10 percent ethanol requirement of the law. And jathropa and "malunggay" which produces biodiesel can be planted to close to 4 million hectares of cogonal mountain land that remain idle. Just drive from Cagayan De Oro to Davao and left and right of the highway will show you mountains that have nothing planted to them at all and these areas are not suitable for food crops because of the sloping characteristic of the land.

The worst part of it all is that we have not even implemented the Biofuels program and we have an impending food crisis. A double whammy, we have neither food nor fuel independence and yet we like to find fault on the solutions proposed to counter these problems. Well if by next month gas prices will be at P50/liter and by next year it will reach P70/liter and you curse the high heavens, please don’t blame the government but the fault-finders. – Sen. JUAN MIGUEL F. ZUBIRI

No missing funds

This refers to the news item "Rodriguez town ball reopens after two days amid tight security" dated March 27, 2008 by Ashzel Hachero, regarding the alleged P429 million unaccounted municipal funds of Rodriguez, Rizal which is subject to Commission on Audit (MOA) investigation.

Acting Mayor Jonas Cruz claims that the municipality has huge discrepancy or unaccounted budget of P429 million and that he was certain that there is COA investigation going on.

The allegations made by Cruz through your newspaper, created doubt among the constituents of the municipality on Mayor Pedro Cuerpo’s administration and the integrity of the municipal government. Because of this dilemma, the Sangguniang Bayan seeks the help of the Commission on Audit, for clarification through a letter sent to the commissioner.

State auditor Redentor Ramirez said the did not come from the COA. In fact, they said they "are not investigating the alleged or missing unaccounted funds." Nor are they aware of how the amount was even arrived at. They state further that "there is no audit finding, regarding the allegations included in the report as baseless and untrue.