RP-Hawaii cooperation pushed on alternative energy sources

HONOLULU (via PLDT) – President Arroyo proposed on Saturday a joint cooperation between the Philippines and Hawaii to develop alternative energy sources, particularly biofuels.

In her speech at the Filipino Community Center here, the President said the Philippines and Hawaii are both producers of sugarcane, one of the major sources of ethanol that is being used as an alternative and renewable fuel.

"I’d like to think that, because one of the sources of energy of the future is ethanol from sugar and our first Filipinos here worked to produce sugar, here is another very good area of cooperation between Hawaii and the Philippines," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Mrs. Arroyo arrived in Honolulu on Friday night (Saturday, Manila time) on her final leg of a five-nation trip to Europe and the Pacific to lead in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the first Filipinos to set foot in Hawaii.

She was accompanied by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye and Press Undersecretaries Milton Alingod and Jose Capadocia.

Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz joined the presidential party on a separate flight from Manila.

"Let’s work together on sugar, ethanol and other alternative sources of energy," Mrs. Arroyo told her audience most of whom were descendants of Filipino migrants.

The first 15 Filipinos arrived in Honolulu Harbor aboard SS Doric on Dec. 20, 1906. The 15 early settlers, all from Ilocos, were the first wave of contract workers to Hawaii that worked in sugarcane fields.

Mrs. Arroyo said the government is aware of the high energy costs.

Hawaii is also facing the same challenges due to rising prices of crude oil in the world market, she said, while the Philippines has its own program of independence from imported fuel like Brazil in view of becoming energy self-sufficient in a decade.

She said cooperation on the use of renewable energy sources "is the future of commerce and this is the future of our own self-reliance on alternative fuels, like geothermal, wind and solar fuels."

During her visit to Helsinki, Finland last week, Mrs. Arroyo also worked for cooperation between the two countries on developing alternative fuel sources.

The Biofuels Act mandates the blending of coco-diesel or coconut methyl ester in all diesel fuel and bioethanol in gasoline sold in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy had appealed to Congress anew to pass legislation promoting the use of renewable sources of fuel to help the government save billions of pesos from oil imports.

Energy Undersecretary Mariano Salazar said, "In the event that the Biofuels Act is passed this year, P29 billion in foreign exchange savings will be realized as a result of 675 million liters of biofuel to substitute for imported diesel and gasoline products."

Salazar said the country’s primary energy supply includes indigenous resources from natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric power plants, and biomass.

"Oil importation provides the fuel needs of the transport sector, consuming about 60 percent of the total fuel requirement," Salazar said.

He said that by 2010, expected energy self-sufficiency level will reach 61.72 percent of the country’s fuel needs which will be the result of continuous diversification and development of indigenous energy. — With Helen Flores