Roxas: Use More Ethanol, Mitigate Oil Shocks Calls For Sugar Cane Crash Planting Program

Senator Mar Roxas greets an old lady outside the Bacolod North Public Market in Bacolod City, Negros Occiental, where he visited recently. Roxas has stressed that prices of many basic goods should be going down with a drop in world oil prices. Roxas’ Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce held a price hearing last Tuesday where he spoke with industry officials on the right pricing of their goods.

"The volatility of oil prices dictates the use of more ethanol in fuel production", said Senator Mar Roxas. As he called on the government to implement a crash program to boost sugarcane production for the purpose.
"Now that the price of oil is temporarily abating, the government must seize the opportunity to boost the search for alternative fuels and wean off the country from its dependence on imported petroleum," said Roxas, who was at Negros Occidental, known as the "sugarbowl" of the Philippines, as it produces more than half of the country’s supply of sugar, the source of ethanol.
"The Philippines remains prone to severe oil shocks and we should not sit idly by, dreadfully anticipating another round of price increases. We have 370,000 hectares in the country that can be tapped for expansion or conversion into sugarcane plantations," he said, noting that a National Biofuel Board is in charge of overseeing implementation of RA 9367, the Biofuels Law, as well as promotion of alternative sources of fuel.
"As co-author of the Biofuels Law, I saw the need to find alternative sources of fuel, particularly ethanol. Sugarcane has two primary purposes – as food and fuel. We encourage the private sector’s expansion of our country’s present sugarcane plantations, so that we can more than meet the present demand for both food and fuel," he added.
The law mandates a 5 percent ethanol blend in gasoline by 2009, two years after its effectivity. By 2012, five years after effectivity, a 10 percent blend will be required. The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) says that about 16 percent of the 389,000 hectares of sugarcane plantation nationwide is needed to produce the 269 million liters of ethanol to meet the 5 percent requirement next year. In 2012, 38 percent of the total sugarcane plantation area nationwide will be needed to produce the 624 million liters of ethanol to meet the 10 percent requirement.
"Oil companies are required to meet a minimum ethanol mix in gasoline over the next five years. But if we’re able to increase sugarcane production and the ethanol supply, our energy companies will be able to increase their ethanol mix above the law’s minimum requirement, and find it more cost-effective to do so," he said. /MP