Molasses down to P500

While we have been getting stories about the slip in the price of domestic raw sugar, actually a lot of sugar business people have been more seriously disturbed by the drop of molasses from P9,000 to P3,700 per metric ton.

This has prompted the search for alternative sources. Among those cited are cassava and sorghum.

Coupled with the drop in sugar prices, that is certainly a worrisome development.

The question, however, is that the importation of molasses is legal. And importers have shifted to buying molasses from Indonesia which is now selling from $120 to $150 per MT.

Thailand, too, is reported to have also a surplus molasses production.

Molasses is converted by distillers into alcohol, said Raymond Montinola, chairman of the Negros-Panay chapter of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Inc.

The closure of the Bago Distillery and the shutdown of the Rexol and the san Carlos Bioethanol plants had compounded the problems of alcohol distillers, Montinola said.

The country consumes about 800,000 Mts of molasses per year.

During the first quarter, according to Montinola, distillers imported something like 50,000 metric tons of molasses.

While the search for alternatives goes on, they cannot immediately be activated to remedy the slack in the molasses production. Then, there is the question of whether they could be produced the same cost as those molasses from Indonesia.

Well, there is nothing that can be done for the time being, said Montinola, except to hope that molasses prices will pick up soon. But he did admit that it zoomed phenomenally last year and just as meteorically dropped down.

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I tasked Thursday the question – what is happening to Negros society? That’s the same question I am asking today.

The reason? Three days ago, I learned from Atty. Simplicio Palanca (Sammy) of BREDCO that thieves had stolen the wires of the power line of the Pope John Paul II tower.

According to Sammy, for three days, the tower had no energy to serve its air conditioning units as well as its elevator. And that, to a certain extent, saw a decrease in the number of visitors to the JPII.

Perhaps, it is time for Bacolod Police chief Ricardo de la Paz to catch the culprits in the theft of the JPII electric power lines.

Palanca had hired two security guards to ensure that thieves do not victimize the JPII again. Incidentally, he told me that last week’s theft was the second to have happened.

Until yesterday, no word has been received on the outcome of the manhunt for former Kapitan Ramon Barangay Captain Noel Ayalin despite the P100,000 reward put up by Governor Alfred Marañon, Jr.

So, what will the police do? Note that Ayalin had earlier said he was not going to surrender but rather will fight to death or commit suicide.

Of course, that is not an easy thing to do considering the number of four barangay officials he had killed and three others wounded.

But think, the most commonsensical approach to the problem is that of George Gitano, the president of the Association of Barangay Captains in Negros Occidental who urged Ayalin to surrender to authorities.

Kapitan, kun pwede pakita ka na para maareglo na ini (Please surrender now, and settle your case).

Perhaps, it is time to remind Ayalin that he should yield now if he does not want his family to suffer. That is the primordial concern of a father that nothing untoward happens to his family. And, I think, that Ayalin just wants an assurance that nothing will happen to his family whom he had earlier evacuated from Kapitan Ramon.

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Just for the record, Remember what I wrote about what happened to Reynaldo Espina, former president of the Northern Negros Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc.?

Well, something I have been assured by JB Mapa, son in-law of Roseller Ciocon, and Roberto Balde, L’Fisher Hotel manager, they have already put up signage at the danger areas of the hotel to avoid further mishaps.

The case of the two steps along the corridor leading to the function room of the hotel, have already been painted a different color for immediate visibility. And they have already put up railings beside the steps.

The same also with the point at driveway of the chalet at the rear entrance to the hotel.

Well, as Rey earlier told me, all he wanted the hotel to do was to make sure that the proper signage’s and cautionary measures are adopted to prevent future incidents.

Well, all’s well that ends well.*

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