As the country’s biofuels policy is now teetering at the edge of failure, Senator Miguel Zubiri, principal author of the Biofuels Law, starts knocking at the door of Dubai Investment House for funding of pipelined biofuels projects, primarily ethanol.

The lawmaker said he already made inroads as to establishing contacts with Dubai Sheikh Maktoum in his bid at getting the latter’s nod for investments in the Philippines.

For the programmed ethanol projects, Zubiri said the immediate capital needs would be to the tune of P1 billion.

Still refusing to acknowledge that the policy is sliding into “failure path,” the convenient excuse he has given was the strike of financial crisis being the triggering factor for staggering investments.

Other policy advocates have gone ahead in blaming the inefficient action of government on land allocation for sugar cane plantation as the culprit for scant entry, if not total lack, of capital infusion.

Despite the hurdles, Zubiri vowed working harder to help the industry thrive as envisioned when the law was still under deliberation.

At the heat of debates then, the Executive Branch and the legislator-proponents have primed biofuels as something that will bring down the prices of fuel and enhance the country’s energy independence.

The reverse though appeared to have been the outcome, as the country just shifted its importation into ethanol. The current major source of the country’s ethanol supply is Brazil.

The law mandates initial ethanol blend of 5 percent by volume; but most of the oil companies opted to introduce it in the market with 10-percent starting blend.

Just recently, the high prices of ethanol were blamed for the failure of the oil companies to bring down their prices to the level that motorists have been demanding.

Amid brave resolve to mandate the sale of biofuels, the Philippines regrettably may end up as the world’s “model on how not to do it” if policymakers are not quick enough in fixing the prevailing investment loopholes.

In the case of biodiesel, coconut remains the only viable feedstock as the experiment on jatropha is still fledgling.