Molasses, a by-product of extracting sugar from sugarcane, is used by distilleries to produce alcohol and ethanol. The importation of this by-product has drawn the CONS and PROS among business groups particularly, the Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA) and the Ethanol Producers Association of the Philippines (EPAP), respectively.

The opposing or CONS (PSMA) contends that there is sufficient supply of the raw material (molasses) locally. The PSMA says that “there is no need to import molasses for bioethanol. Local molasses production is on the upswing and our demand has been soft and slow. . . and molasses inventories are building up that there has been an overflow in molasses tanks in some mills in recent months. And that, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), as on January 2023, molasses production reached 471,046 .15 metric tons (MT) higher by 3.38 percent from December 2022.

Also, In 2022 the Philippines imported molasses for potable alcohol and animal feeds, up by 80 percent from 2021. In January 2023 molasses importation reached 80 percent to 88,7021 MT.

Meanwhile, EPAP earlier said that the ethanol industry needs 1.6 million of molasses to fully support their operations, however, SRA only reports a maximum o 1.1million MT.

Furthermore, and based on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report expressed optimism that the Philippines will accelerate its total fuel ethanol imports by 33 percent to 330 million liters this year to fill in the gap due to the expected increase in consumption.

MY COMMENT:
The issue on whether or not the country need to import molasses to keep the Bioethanol Industry alive, needs immediate action by the present political leadership. Personally, I cannot the logic of importing molasses if the PSMA is saying that there is enough molasses produce kept in tanks to meet the operational needs of the EPEP, but bluntly denied by EPAP. Just which group is telling the naked truth?
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WE should be ready when bad things happen in our life. In fact, we should expect the worst in life, like when death, which cannot be solved anymore, would finally come to us. Before death, we should be ready when cases of severe misfortune or harsh crisis of some kind come our way.

We are somehow reminded of this need for readiness in the gospel reading of Wednesday of Holy Week. (cfr. Mt 26,14-25) There Christ was talking about his impending betrayal by no less than one of his apostles and did not run away from it since he knew it was his time to consummate his redemptive mission.

We should try our best to have the mind of Christ when bad things happen to us. If we still can have time and find some solutions to these problems and difficulties, then by all means, let’s do it. But if there is no more time or that solutions are hard to find or, worse, when no more solutions can be found, let’s see to it that we do not fail to go through these situations always with Christ.

Of course, when times are good, we should always enjoy them with Christ too. Otherwise, those good things can easily turn bad for us. In fact, there should be no time, no circumstance, no situation in our life when we can distance ourselves from Christ.

We therefore need to develop a certain discipline where Christ should always be in our mind and heart whatever the circumstance or situation is. We cannot deny that we tend to forget Christ in certain situations and prefer to deal with them simply with our own human powers. Obviously, we have to make full use of our human powers and faculties, but we should never fail to depend on God, on Christ, first of all!

We should always go to Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” since he surely is the one who will show us how to handle the difficulties we encounter in life. In all our affairs and situations in life, we should always go to God, to Christ, to ask for his help and guidance, and to trust his ways and his providence, even if our prayers and petitions appears unanswered, if not, contradicted.

This should be the attitude to have. It’s an attitude that can only indicate our unconditional faith and love for God who is always in control of things, and at the same time can also leave us in peace and joy even at the worst of the possibilities.

Remember the Book of Ecclesiastes where it says that for everything there is a season, “a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal…” But everything is under God’s control, and even if we are capable of eternity, we just the same “cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (3,1ff) We just have to trust him.

We have to follow the example of the many characters in the gospel who, feeling helpless in the many predicaments they were in, earnestly rushed to Christ for some succor. They went to him unafraid and unashamed and they got what they wanted.