Negros hits breakthrough
with ethanol from sorghum
IT’S A FIRST IN SOUTHEAST
ASIA, ZABALETA SAYS
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Another breakthrough in ethanol production took place in Negros Occidental early yesterday morning.

San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. in San Carlos City, for the first time in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, produced fuel ethanol from sweet sorghum, Jose Ma. Zabaleta, SCBI chairman, told the DAILY STAR.

The breakthrough was a joint effort of SCBI, Prof. Rex Demafelis, University of the Philippines Los Baños Alternative Energy Research, Development and Extension convenor and chairman of the UPLB Energy Systems Committee, the Sagay City government, Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research and Biomass Resources Inc. that conducted the agricultural trial for the production of sweet sorghum.

Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito (San Juan, Lone District) Saturday said he hopes Chief Justice Renato Corona will resign to spare himself and his family from humiliation, and so we can move on.

Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay (Zambales, 1st District), who has been associated with former President Gloria Arroyo, said if the senator–judges base their decisions on the facts and evidence Corona will be acquitted, but if they act based on political reasons that is a different story.

Ejercito and Magsaysay, who plan to run for the Senate next year, were in Bacolod City Saturday and held a press conference after attending a gathering of Sangguniang Kabataan leaders.

Bishop Vicente Navarra announced yesterday the new assignments for priests in the Diocese of Bacolod, and the designated heads of the diocesan commissions, the curia or the administrative office, and the seminary formators.

While the certificates of appointment were signed by the bishop on May 23, the actual transfer of those assigned in parishes and chaplaincies will be agreed upon by the priests concerned.

The last major reshuffling of clergy assignments was in May 2007, and normally, a major reshuffle takes place every six years when the terms of office expire.