Tuesday, June 3, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. is looking at the possibility of putting up a jatropha plantation in an idle 600-hectare land in Tanay, Rizal.
PNOC-AFC, a unit of Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) mandated to lead in the development of alternative fuels, said the members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Rizal Provincial Chapter (LMP-Rizal) expressed their support for jatropha as a biodiesel feedstock.
“We believe in the alternative fuels program of PNOC-AFC and we are offering around 600 hectares of idle land in Tanay for jatropha. PNOC-AFC’s program will also be a great help in providing jobs to our constituents,” Jala-jala Mayor Elionor I. Pillas, current LMP-Rizal president, said.
Last May 30, PNOC-AFC held a briefing in Rizal to boost the popularity of jatropha as the most viable feedstock for biodiesel.
“PNOC-AFC’s biofuels program is aimed at finding alternative sources of energy to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, rid the air of carbon emissions which is a major cause of global warming and provide jobs in the countryside,” PNOC-AFC chairman Renato S. Velasco said.
Velasco said the PNOC unit pierced the so-called financial barrier in planting jatropha as early as last year through a memorandum of agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines in August.
The agreement stipulates that farmers simply need to provide idle lands and labor while PNOC-AFC shall provide technical assistance to those interested in planting jatropha.
PNOC-AFC, Velasco said, does not intend to make farmers shift their food production to jatropha.
PNOC-AFC is presently utilizing idle military lands in Nueva Ecija and marginal cogonal lands in Cagayan de Oro for the biggest jatropha nursery and pilot plantation in the country, with a total of 787 hectares.
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