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Thursday, June 09, 2005
Biodiesel plant seen to help coco industry
Filipino-owned company Chemrez Inc. is investing P2.2 billion to put up the first biodiesel manufacturing plant in Asia, which is seen to boost the Philippine coconut industry and to give a bright future to the country’s millions of poor coconut farmers and their families.
Department of Energy 7 Director Antonio Labios bared that biodiesel is now a growing industry worldwide and the Philippines can lean on the country’s coconut industry for supply.
With Asia’s first biodiesel plant to rise in the Philippines, about five million coconut farmers nationwide and their 23 to 25 million families or household members can benefit from the move, Labios also said.
According to a press release from the Philippine Information Agency 7, there are nearly half-a-million coconut farmers and farm workers in the region, with the most number coming from Bohol, which has 211,664 coconut farmers and farm workers, followed by Cebu with 164,792, based on Philippine Coconut Authority 7 records.
Labios said Chemrez’s plan to put up the biodiesel plant is very timely, considering that a bill mandating the use of biodiesel by the transport sector to help solve the energy crisis in the country has been filed by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
The proposed Bio-fuels Act of 2005 provides for the compulsory blending of at least five percent and ten percent ethanol fuel into all gasoline distributed, sold and used as motor fuel in the country.
Likewise, the draft proposal also mandates the blending of at least one percent to five percent biodiesel in all gasoline distributed, sold and used as motor fuel.
In February last year, President Gloria Arroyo issued Memorandum Circular No. 55 ordering all government agencies including government-owned and controlled corporations to use one percent coconut methyl esther (CME) by volume mixed with petroleum diesel fuel in their vehicle requirements. (PR)
(June 9, 2005 issue)
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