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THERE is
no need to suspend the government’s biofuels program so
that more agricultural lands can be devoted to the
planting of rice and other food crops, according to
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
In a
statement, Pimentel said the government should not
backtrack from developing alternative, renewable sources
of energy that are abundant in the country to further
reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil, which
has soared beyond $100 a barrel in the world market in
recent weeks.
“With
the price of crude oil shooting up to $106 per barrel,
there may come a time when we could no longer afford
this imported commodity,” Pimentel said. “We should not
stop working to attain self-sufficiency in energy,” he
added.
Pimentel, principal author of the Biofuels Act of 2007
(also known as Republic Act 9367), rejected proposals to
postpone implementation of the biofuels law due to
apprehensions that it may endanger the country’s food
security, especially in the wake of the current rice
crisis.
He
allayed fears that the production of biofuels—also
called “green” or plant-based fuels—may adversely affect
domestic food production, saying this may be true only
in the
United States
and Europe where corn, wheat and sorghum crops are the
main ingredients for making ethanol as a substitute fuel
for motor vehicles.
“The
situation in the
Philippines
is entirely different because sugar cane is being used
here as main ingredient for ethanol,” Pimentel pointed
out, adding “this will not affect the sugar supply in
the domestic market because the bulk of the country’s
sugar production is being exported.”
The
Senator also noted that the Department of Agriculture
(DA) has already identified sizeable areas of
agricultural lands that can be develop as additional
rice plantations. He added that ethanol production would
enable sugar planters to make profitable use of their
excess sugar cane after meeting domestic requirements
and export quotas.
Moreover, Pimentel explained that the production of coco
diesel also led to increased demand for coconut oil,
giving a much-needed shot-in-the-arm to the ailing
coconut industry. At present, he said, coconut oil is
widely used for cooking oil, but the bulk of this
product is exported to other countries.
The
government, he added, is also promoting jatropha as a
biofuel source and has ordered the use of huge tracts of
idle public and private lands for jatropha plantations.
Pimentel explained that these lands are mostly located
in upland and hilly areas and unsuitable for rice
planting.
At the
same time, Pimentel cited a DA report that 15 foreign
and local companies have embarked on biofuel ventures
with P34 billion worth of proposed investments covering
725.300 hectares of land to be planted to sugar cane,
jatropha or tuba tuba, palm oil and coconut.
The
Alternative Fuels Corp. of the Philippine National Oil
Co. and the Philippine Forest Corp. under the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources are overseeing the
government’s massive jatropha-plantation program.
It was
reported that a total of 137,537 hectares of what used
to be idle lands spread in military reservations have
been devoted for jatropha nurseries and plantations.
Another 50,000 hectares of lands in government penal
colonies, including Iwahig,
Palawan, will be converted into jatropha plantations.
Pimentel
also argued that biofuels will provide not only
alternative energy sources but will also lessen air
pollution as ethanol, for instance, is considered a
clean fuel because it is unlike gasoline or diesel which
emits a lot of carbon dioxide. |
