GMA wants local execs to lead jatropha tree-planting

President Arroyo asked local officials yesterday to spearhead the planting of fuel-generating jatropha trees on idle lands to accelerate the government’s efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on imported crude oil.

In her speech before Luzon-based members of the Philippine Councilors League in their general meeting at the Subic Bay Freeport, the President also asked the local officials to lead an "honest-to-goodness" energy conservation campaign amid rising fuel prices.  "Plant jatropha in your idle lands that cannot be planted with other kinds of plants because it grows very well on marginal lands," Mrs. Arroyo said, referring to the plant from whose seeds environment-friendly diesel can be derived.  

"You can make this part of your local livelihood programs and this could also create jobs and increase the income of families," she said. The President was apparently unaware of the caution aired by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri last week in Malacañang that the planting of jatropha should not be rushed as the government’s program is still being tried out first on idle lands at military camps.

Neri said there is a specific breed of jatropha that is most suitable for deriving fuel and that the proper season for planting it should be observed. Three kilos of jatropha seeds can produce one liter of bio-diesel fuel. It reportedly can also produce oil from which ethanol, a gasoline additive, can be derived.

Mrs. Arroyo said the plant grows very well on sandy soil, such as in the lahar-covered areas of Pampanga and Zambales.

She said the government is undertaking a strategic program to cut down on oil-based power plants and to shift to those that run on hydropower, geothermal and natural gas.

She said only a small percentage of the total electricity produced in Luzon is generated through imported fuel and most is from coal and other sources but the price of the latter is tied to the price of crude oil so the power costs remain high.

Generating indigenous fuels can reduce such costs, the President said. — Paolo Romero