8,000 hectares of public lands earmarked for bio-fuel project

BALANGA CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources here has earmarked some 8,000 hectares of public lands for the use of the government’s bio-fuel project.

Lawyer Ricardo Lazaro, DENR Bataan provincial environment and natural resources officer (Penro) told The STAR that the government had identified those areas previously leased to 26 transformed into more plausible energy project likely to “tuba-tuba” plantation.

Lazaro said the establishment of Jatropha farms in Bataan would be sufficient to supply the initial requirement of the proposed multi-million peso bio-fuel plant of the Philippine National Oil Co. Alternative Fuel inside the huge petrochemical complex in the coastal village of Batangas Dos, Mariveles town, this province.

He said tuba-tuba will be used as feedstock for biodiesel under the Biofuels Act of 2005.

Earlier, the Philippine Forest Corp. (PhiForest), a government owned and controlled corporation under the DENR is eyeing some 500-hectare public lands located at the back of historic Mount Samat in Barangay Liyang,Pilar and  Barangay Parang, Bagac, as model Jatropha  farms in Central Luzon for biodiesel project in the country.

DENR Undersecretary Eleazar Quinto for field operations and concurrently the president of PhilForest, had informed Pilar Mayor Charlie Pizarro and Bagac Mayor Ramil del Rosario last week that Celso Diaz, PhilForest consultant, will visit the selected model farm with Lazaro, to  undertake  ocular inspection and initial evaluation as to the viability of the said project.

“We hope to establish the Jatropha plantation as a show window for potential investors both local and foreign in the upland village of Liyang, Pilar town as first site of PhilForest-DENR plantation in Central Luzon and the creation of such plantation can generate additional revenues for upland farmers,” Quinto said.

According to DENR, the initial investment for commercial plantation for one hectare ranges from P32,000 to P50,000 and the fair return of investment ranging from 90 to 95 centavos per P1 and potential yield  from 1.25 to 12.5 tons per hectare depending on the site, climate and tending operations.

The establishment of Jatropha plantation would also develop idle lands to root crop farming which would ensure steady income for the upland tiller aside from the employment opportunities generated by the bio-fuel project.