Suspension of biofuels law 'insufficient,' group says

MANILA, Philippines - A senator’s recent announcement calling for the biofuel law’s suspension is insufficient, an environmental group said. Although it agreed that the suspension is a step in the right direction, the Kalikasan People’s Network said that the said law must be repealed instead. “Senator Rodolfo Biazon’s statement to suspend the Biofuels Law is a move in the right direction. Still, it’s not enough," the group said in a statement on Thursday. Citing government reports, the organization claimed that the Department of Agriculture (DA) is currently identifying 725,300 hectares of agricultural land for biofuel production while the Philippine National Oil Co.-Alternative Fuel Corp. (PNOC-AFC), a government-owned corporation, is looking for an additional 1.2 million hectares of land for jatropha production. In 2007, Land Bank of the Philippines allocated Php10 billion pesos to support PNOC-AFC to the production of jathropa, a plant whose oil, when crushed, can be used as a fuel additive. “These massive land and crop conversions will worsen the rice and food crisis in the country. The shift to biofuel production will decrease our crops production such as corn, sugarcane, coconut and hinder the expansion of our rice production. Lower local food production means higher dependency on food importation for our domestic needs," the group said. The organization added that the Philippine Senate must look beyond the biofuel law’s suspension. “The law is basically bankrupt as it is oriented towards aggravating land and crop conversion in the country. It is better to draft a new bill that will make biofuel production support the agricultural development and reverse the food insufficiency of the country," the group said. - GMANews.TV