The country is turning to the "fuel of the future" or ethanol to help ride out the crisis sparked by high oil prices.

Noting that the price of oil in the United States has hit a record high of $70 per barrel, President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday declared that the regime of inexpensive oil prices had ended but vowed the country "would not allow itself to be held hostage" by this development.

"We will not allow the situation to immobilize us," Ms Arroyo said in yet another round table discussion with energy officials aired over the government-run NBN-4 TV station.

Underscoring the need for the country to look for "new sources of oil," the President quoted multinationals as saying that the "fuel of the future" was ethanol.

In the TV program, Ms. Arroyo went to the extent of "certifying as urgent" the proposed "fuel bio-diesel bill" authored by Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri and almost 100 other congressmen and which was up for second reading in the House.

According to Zubiri, who was also in the TV program, the bill seeks to mandate oil companies to blend ethanol in their gasoline up to 10 percent.

"It's a non-political, non-controversial bill," Zubiri told the President.

Ethanol, derived from fruits and plants such as cassava and sugarcane, could be used as a "blending mixture to gasoline" in order to bring down gas prices, the Bukidnon representative said.

The good thing about ethanol, he continued, was that it was "sustainable" for as long as sugar cane or cassava could be planted in the country.

Ethanol, right now, is imported. It was only yesterday that ethanol-blended gasoline was made available in the country by small oil player Sea Oil which started selling ethanol at its gas station at Edsa corner Quezon Avenue.