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Bacolod City, Philippines Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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with Rolly Espina
OPINIONS

Feedback can
change political bets

Rolly Espina Sometimes, drumbeaters end up as the political candidate against their better judgment.

It may sound queer, but the telephoned perceptions to Franklin Villanueva yesterday morning showed that many of the callers were favoring the choice of City Legal Officer Allan Zamora over Mayor Evelio Leonardia. "Political will" was the value that touched the listeners or the audience. And there were others who pointed out that the administration party be changed to Zamora, Lyndon Caņa, and Vice Mayor Renecito Novero for congressman.

As I pointed out earlier, these are just among the surprising feedback from the audiences of radio and television programs. In short, what is happening here shows that when drumbeaters are given most of the time for a show, they could end up upending the ones they are supposed to be marketing.

***

There have been questions about the "A" sugar which hit 130,322 metric tons with 29,782 mts verified.

Anyway, the more important is that M/V Lake Joy will sail for the US East Coast on Feb. 23 with a 25,000 mts load of raw sugar.

Their next will be the 25,000 mts additional on board the M/V TBN. This is expected to arrive on March 21 and will immediately take on the cargo for the US.

The final shipment of the RP share of the US sugar quota will be on April 10. The M/V Baltic Frontier will load 24,000 mts of raw sugar, according to Administrator James Ledesma.

Meanwhile, local sugar leaders have their eyes focused on the agreement between Brazil and the US for ethanol shipment to the US signed by President George Bush last week.

This followed the call by Bush for the renewal of the sugar program. Democratic control of both houses of Congress assures support for the sugar program.

What is interesting is that demand for ethanol in the US has gone up. This is reportedly because the government wants to extricate itself from complete dependence on fossil fuel from outside.

There is also the need to uphold the Kyoto Protocol in the face of mounting evidence of climate change brought about by pollution.

Thus, with US ethanol production sharply rising, the problem is that its ethanol comes mostly from corn. Thus, the result has been the increase of corn price to $4 per bushel. That also triggered a sharp increase in the prices of high fructose corn syrup to 21 cents from the previous 12 cents per pound.

The reason for this is that HFCS became more needed for ethanol production. Correspondingly, this also stopped the movement of Mexican sugar to the US market. Expensive HFCS for soft drinks spurred demand for sugar boosting domestic prices.

Well, anyway, the more important consideration is how the demand for ethanol will affect our sugar export to the US?

And, yes, the most important, what are our chances of being able later on to export ethanol to the US when the flexicars become so numerous that demand for the fuel sharply increase?

I chanced upon James Ledesma, the Sugar Regulatory Administrator, Mike Hinojales and another sugarman plus Luis Tongoy, vice chairman of the Confed Negros-Panay chapter, engaged yesterday in studying the details of the prospective ethanol problems various twists and traps.

I will tackle later some questions about the tariff rate quota and the consequences of the full implementation of the NAFTA provisions on sugar by the first of January, next year.

***

The Batangas gubernatorial race have suddenly become a national story. The TV audiences all over have been riveted to the final decision by Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto on whether she will finally decided to run against her brother-in-law, vice governor Ricky Recto and incumbent governor Armand Sanchez. Well, that finally landed in the front pages of the dailies. A local contest that has ended up as an eye-riveting event.

***

Negros Occidental Governor Joseph Maraņon deserves congratulations for his candid admission that he will try but cannot guarantee a 12-0 sweep of the senatorial contest by the Team Unity ticket.

Very rarely will a politician admit that he cannot guarantee being able to convince his constituents to abide with his request. But Maraņon admitted frankly that the people will decide for themselves whether they will agree with him or not.

Among the strongest contenders in Negros are Rep. Miguel Zubiri, Sen. John Osmeņa, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, and Sen. Ralph Recto. Senator Ping Lacson also enjoys a big local following. So with Senator Manuel Villar, who is partly Ilonggo. Of course, Senator Loren Legarda is automatically remembered by a lot of Negrenses.*


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