Leading Philippine senator says oil companies funding anti-biofuels campaign with divisive food-vs.-fuel message; industry execs say focus on jatropha will assure Philippines can produce food and fuel

In the Philippines, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri Tuesday said that oil companies are financing a campaign suggesting that biofuel production will affect Philippine food production. Zubiri said that oil companies such as Petron have launched a fund to lobby against biofuels because it represents competition. The chairman of Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC) confirmed that the Philippine focus on jatropha, which is grown in areas that cannot support many food crops and has a higher yield per acre than food, will assure that the Philippines can produce both food and fuel.

Tests by the Technological University of the Philippines and Chemrez Technologies have shown that jatropha biodiesel from PNOC Alternative Fuels meets both US and European standards.

Tests have now expanded the pool of jatropha hybrids to six candidates that meet EN 14214 (Europe) and ASTM D6751 (US).

The seeds were provided by PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corporation, the biofuels division of state-owned oil company PNOC. TUP was responsible for oil extraction, while Chemrez performed the esterization process that converts the oil to biodiesel.

The Department of Agriculture recently said that as of last August, 38,000 hectares were being developed for biofuels, primarily in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani and Sultan Kudarat provinces and Gen. Santos City. The Philippines have a B1 and E5 mandate scheduled to go into effect in 2009, rising to B2 and E10 in 2011. Philippine demand for biofuels is expected to rise to 187 million galls of ethanol and 54 gallons of biodiesel by 2011.

This year, eight Philippine companies have pledged more than $350 million towards biofuels production investment.

The companies include: Bio-Energy NL, Inc.; E-Cane/Pampanga Industrial Park Corp.; Philippine Agricultural Land Development and Mill, Inc (PALM, Inc.); and Zambo Norte Bioenergy; Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corp., Guidance Management Corp., Fuel, Inc. and Eastern Petroleum.

Yesterday, a Senate co-sponsor author of the Biofuels Act said that the Bill has been overhyped and she is calling on the country to slow down implementation to ensure that biofuel production is sutainable. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said that biofuel production will compete with food production and that the government had to apply the brakes to development by strengthening the Biofuels Oversight Committee and prioritizing wind, solar and other renewable energies ahead of biofuels.

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