Zubiri: Scout for Santos replacement in Biofuels board

Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri asked the President to replace the National Biofuels Board Executive Director Ramon Santos.

Zubiri commented that the position of Executive Director of the National Biofuels Board needs a dyed-in-the-wool expert on biofuels -- the various feedstocks and processing technologies.

"I end up responding to various attacks because the Board represented by its head has failed to muster the subject well enough nor summoned the courage to defend the reason for their very creation."

"It's not just being media savvy. They have to show real efforts to reach out to the public. All of them, especially the head, from the start have known that the public's nagging questions on the food versus fuel debate is at the core of the success of the Biofuels program."

"We may need a scientific expert, techno wiz and marketing man all rolled into one. Of course, that's the ideal, our wish list. We may never find him but, at least we need a man with a short learning curve to head this crucial body dealing with energy, environment and health issues."

Zubiri appealed that "if ever a search committee is ordered to look for that man, they should find the man with the right fit to the vacancy. Not a square peg into a round hole. Track record and the candidate's previous handling and mastery of various issues such as clean air, global warming, skyrocketing petroleum prices, need for clean and cheaper transport fuel and feedstock science are the minimum."

"We are shortchanging the public with the unresponsive character of the Board when it fails to ventilate the strategies for the biofuels program such as the priority crops, areas and processing technologies. The dumbing silence from the Board is a disservice to environmentalists, the Congress, farmers of food crops and biofuels feedstock and the public."