Press Release
April 18, 2008

PIMENTEL SAYS THERE IS NO NEED TO SUSPEND BIO-FUELS PROGRAM

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today cautioned government leaders against making haphazard suggestion to suspend the implementation of the bio-fuels program by raising the argument that the production of rice and other major crops should enjoy priority over alternative, indigenous fuel sources.

Pimentel said there should be no conflict between the bio-fuels program and the plan to make the country self-sufficient in rice.

"We should not commit the mistake of backtracking from our program to develop alternative, renewable sources of energy that are abundant in the country. Otherwise, we will be helpless in coping with the skyrocketing price of imported oil and its domino effects on prices of food and other essential commodities," he said.

Pimentel, one of the principal authors of the Bio-Fuels Act of 2006, said it would be a defeatist posture to suspend several bio-fuel projects, many of which are already in an advanced stage of implementation while the price of oil in the global market has already exceeded $110 per barrel which is too much for "have-not" countries like the Philippines.

He said it would be foolhardy for the government to tell foreign and local investors to lay off for a while after pouring in billions of pesos in ethanol, jatropha and other bio-fuels projects.

Pimentel allayed apprehensions that the bio-fuels program may endanger food security such as what is happening in western countries.

The country's bio-fuels program is patterned after Brazil using sugarcane for producing bio-ethanol and that of India using jatropha (tuba-tuba) for bio-diesel.

Aside from this, the government is promoting the use of coco-diesel from coconut oil, which is now largely intended for export. He said diverting a bigger portion of the coconut oil output to coco-diesel production will not in anyway jeopardize food supply.

Pimentel said if the production of bio-ethanol in the United States and Europe is causing a lot of jitters over food security, it's because the feedstocks they are using come from corn, wheat and sorghum.

He explained that the use of sugarcane as feedstock for bio-ethanol production will hardly affect the supply of sugar for domestic consumption in the Philippines. Moreover, he pointed out that sugar is only an additive and not a staple food.

The bulk of the country's sugar production is intended for the export market, Pimentel said as he also noted the enthusiasm of sugar producers over the bio-ethanol program because this will create additional use for their excess sugarcane production.

Pimentel said the mass planting of jatropha as a source of so-called "green fuel" will not imperil the government's plan to open up additional farmlands for rice planting.

This is because jatropha thrives in upland, hilly and even cogonal lands that are not suitable for rice production.

According to a report from the Department of Agriculture, 15 foreign and local companies have embarked on bio-fuels ventures with P34 billion worth of investments covering 725,300 hectares of lands to be plated to sugarcane, jatropha, palm oil and coconut.

A total of 137,537 hectares of what used to be idle lands spread in various military reservations have been set aside for jatropha nurseries and plantations. Another 50,000 hectares of land in government panel colonies will be converted into jatropha plantations.

Pimentel said another unique advantage of bio-fuels is it is considered a clean fuel and therefore will help lessen air pollution.

He said this will create new opportunities for farmers to augment their income.

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