How effective are candidates debates that usually get staged to enable voters to get a feel of what they have in mind once they get elected?

The question becomes imperative in the face of the fact that unfortunately many of these political power seekers make all sorts of alibis why they are unable to join such debates.

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For instance, a forum that sought to clarify the positions of presidential aspirants on the most pressing development issues of the day recently gave us insight into what goes on in the minds of candidates both present and absent during said forum.

Just recently, only five of the presidentiables bothered to show up in the event organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines and the United Nations Development Program. Two of these candidates-Sen. Francis Escudero and former president Joseph Estrada-are both front-runners in various poll surveys.

The other perceived front-runners did not bother to show up. Sen. Manuel Villar reportedly said he is not inclined to grace such forums and debates, saying he would "rather talk to the people." Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, on the other hand, reportedly decided not to attend anything unless his perceived main rival, Villar, was present.

Goodness, gracious! If Villar's and Aquino's aversion to such gatherings is true, they are guilty of depriving the public the opportunity to guage them on the basis of sound and relevant issues. It is also possible that these candidates are not confident of their own grasp of national issues. Whichever is the case it only displays plain arrogance, and certainly the people dislike arrogant politicians.

We hope our local candidates get the cue from this political boo-boo as bringing together political candidates in forums and debates makes perfect sense. Unless, of course, some candidates have nothing in-between their ears they should respect voters' intelligence and their need for answers. Their readiness to do so will only reveal how forthright they will be in tackling issues involving their constituency if and when they get elected.

Reactions on "Increase tariff on ethanol"

The province commemorated the 111th anniversary of the gallant, albeit short-lived, declaration of the Republic of Negros this Cinco de Noviembre yesterday with the theme "Pagpalambo sg mga Bag-ong Baganihan Padulong sa Kultura sg Pagbag-o" (Nurturing Modern Day Heroes Towards the Culture of Change).

Part of the activities is giving of "Dungganon Awards" to "outstanding Negrenses who have been consistently responding to our revenue generation campaign by paying their taxes religiously and promptly, either as individual tax-payers or those representing their respective corporations/companies".

One of 2009's five Dungganon Awardees in the individual category is NFSP President Enrique D. Rojas. Congratulations, Sir! This will add to your numerous outstanding taxpayer awards in the past from Bacolod City, Murcia, and the province.

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My column titled "Increase tariff on ethanol" published last week, October 28, elicited reactions from two diverse points across the world. One reaction came from California while another originated from Saudi Arabia.

You guessed it right. The email from California was from Maning Diaz, a UP-educated geologist from Sipalay with extensive background in mining and chemical engineering and who has a special affinity with the sugar industry, particularly in the field of wastewater treatment and management. Maning emailed:

"Why must we always depend on foreign investment to put up all the ethanol plants we need? Foreign investors do not put their money in the Philippines because they love the Pinoys. They are there to exploit the Pinoys and make money.

Why can't our congressmen sponsor bills that would finance the rehabilitation and modernization of our sugar mills to include co-generation and ethanol production?

Congressmen can allocate for themselves pork which ends up in huge mansions, vacations in foreign lands and useless public works infrastructure but they cannot allocate money to modernize our sugar industry?

Are the Negrenses electing non-performing representatives to Congress?

It is about time that we from Negros elect representatives that would address the needs to modernize the sugar Industry. Let us not entrust our destiny to foreign carpet baggers."

What say you, Negrense congressmen?

The other email came was from Samson Guevarra, Oil and Gas Division project manager of Al-Khobar-based Saudi Consulting and Design Office. Guevarra is a true-blue Bacoleño who finished his elementary education in Andres Bonifacio Elementary School and his secondary studies at NOHS.

Recently, Guevarra was named The Most Outstanding Mechanical Engineer in the country by the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has 25 years of petrochemical industry experience under his belt. Guevarra wrote:

"I have read your column regarding the issue of imposing a one (1 percent) tariff on ethanol fuel sponsored by Sen. Miguel Zubiri who is also a sugarcane planter from Bukidnon and son of Jose Zubiri from Negros Occ. I know Jose Zubiri when I was then a caddy in the Bacolod Golf and Country Club in Mandalagan, Bacolod City way back in the 60's.

Don't you know that ethanol can also be produced from crude oil or natural gas similar to our Palawan-Malampaya Gas? Malampaya Gas could be converted into ethanol fuel by gas refining thru absorption method.

Natural gas could be cleaned by the introduction of amine chemical to remove the impurities thus producing what we called as the sweet gas. The other portion of this gas is the sour gas, which will be used as the fuel for our gas turbine power plant in Luzon area.

Sweet gas will be compressed into NGL and will be stripped into various feedstocks such as methane, ethane, butane and etc. The ethane that is stripped will be converted into an ethanol fuel.

If our country is consuming about 300,000 barrels/day of crude oil and if 10% is being substituted by ethanol, our country will be saving an import crude of 30,000 barrels/day or roughly $2.1 million/day (@$70/bbl). Is our PNOC petroleum group performing this type of processing in our Malampaya gas?

Ethanol is not actually a gasoline but a simply an "additive" to increase the horsepower of the engine. Ethanol is only ten percent (10 percent) soluble to gasoline. Meaning to say that if you're using 10 liters of gasoline and if you mix it up with ethanol, you need only 9 liters gasoline since 1 liter will be ethanol.

Back in the early 20 century, when German Mr. Daimler invented the gasoline engine, the British introduced "lead" additive to improve the horsepower of the engine but lead was later found out in the 70's to cause lung cancer when inhaled during combustion.

Methanol replaced lead in the 80's but it was also found to be environmentally unfriendly because, when it is spilled in the ground, it could penetrate up to the deepest water table and could poison the people drinking the deep well water.

In the 90's, ethanol was introduced to replace methanol since it is not poisonous when mixed with drinking water.

You are also talking to use ethanol in the power plant. To use gasoline in the power plant is too expensive. Most power plants are fueled by diesel, bunker, gas and etc. Do you think that ethanol could be mixed with these mentioned fuels other than gasoline?

My suggestion is that our country should search for more natural gas to produce fuel for gas turbine, petrochemical feedstock and, of course, ethanol. I hope that Malampaya Gas is being processed like my suggestion above.

You could also send this e-mail to PNOC Petroleum Group. The above knowledge was acquired thru my more than 25 years experience in Saudi Arabia."

If only our government policy makers heed the expert advice of Engr. Guevarra...

Thanks for the emails, Maning and Samson. More power to both of you!

(For reactions and suggestions, email bbacaoco@yahoo.com.)

Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on November 6, 2009.