Bishop tells Arroyo gov't: Food first before biofuels

MANILA, Philippines- A senior member of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines advised the government to prioritize food production over biofuels even as oil prices continue to surge. "We need to reserve agricultural lands for more food production instead of alternative fuels. Even if fuel prices are going up, but also, food prices are going up.I think food is more important," Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said on Friday. Ledesma asserted that while prices of fuel continue to increase, food security, he said must be the government's main concern. “I doubt whether that [alterntive fuels] is what we need because what we need now is more food," Ledesma told reporters in an interview. Oil companies have said that oil prices are set to continue rising due to the increasing global demand, tight supply and depreciating value of the US dollar. Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes also advised the public to prepare and mull on the idea of shifting to alternative fuels such as biofuels and natural gas. The government, in particular the PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp, is currently coordinating with local government units and provincial government to identify idle lands that are suitable for biofuels production specifically jatropha plantation. Ledesma, at the same time, appeal to landowners not to use the need for alternative fuel as an excuse to avoid land conversion. “Conversion to biofuel production is really one excuse that they (landowners) say for their land to be exempted from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). On the other hand, we are saying the opposite. That should not be allowed because the conversion to biofuel production is the opposite of what we need for food security today," he said. Farmers’ groups earlier accused some land owners of trying to avoid CARP by transforming their lands to biofuel producing areas. - GMANews.TV