Thursday, September 28, 2006 Army group goes 'green'
CARRYING shovels rather than rifles, Philippine Army's 4th Infantry Division soldiers walk daily to their designated areas inside their vast military reservation to plant Jathropa Curcas or simply "Jathropa" locally known as "Tuba-tuba."
Brigadier General Jose T. Barbieto, chief of the Army's 4th ID, designated his assistant, Brigadier General Arsenio Arugay, to head the planning and implementation of the planting of Jathropa plants dubbed as the "energy of the future."
The oil, which can be extracted from Jathropa, will become an alternative to imported fuel. Jathropa is known as clean, renewable and farm-grown fuel.
The 4th ID's military reservation areas include: the 45,000-hectare Kibaritan complex located in Barangay Malinao, Kalilangan, Bukidnon; the 2,000-hectare Mayapay complex near Butuan City; and the Camp Evangelista area where a 35-hectare (Lot 4318) was recently confirmed by a Supreme Court decision as Military Reservation situated inside Patag and Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City.
These areas are included in the ongoing and programmed areas for Jathropa planting.
Other military camps and installations in Northern Mindanao and Caraga are also being considered for Jathropa planting.
The Jatropa planting is in support of the government's "Berdeng Pilipinas" project, which aims in making the country new "Green Philippines" in the next five years though reforestation, environmental clean-up, and establishment of more parks and recreational areas.
The Army will continue participating on the said efforts as well as the planting of trees in different Army camps and its vicinity nationwide and the maintaining of plant nurseries.
In response to the government program of developing alternative source of fuel, the Army has pushed for the continued cultivation of biodiesel producing Jathropa plants. Three kilos of Jathropa seed can produce a liter of Jathropa biodiesel. (BOT with Press release)
