United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri today called on the Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) to give the Philippine biofuels sector serious attention by increasing the current coco-biodiesel blend of 2 percent to 5 percent in all diesel fuel requirements.
“It has been more than five years since Republic Act 9367 or the Biofuels Act was passed in January 2007 yet the DOE has not progress in terms of fully implementing the law particularly in increasing further the blend for biodiesel”, Zubiri pointed out.
Under the Biofuels Act, the DOE is empowered to increase the biodiesel blend to all diesel fuel sold and distributed accross the country by all oil company . In January 19, 2009, the the DOE through the National Biofuels Board (NBB) implemented an increase of 2 percent blend from 1 percent. RA 9367 states that the blend maybe increased taking into account domestic supply and availability of locally-sourced biodiesel component.
“So why are we not moving forward! What are we waiting? Our country has an abundant supply of coconut to meet the higher blend of 5 percent. Based on the data gathered, of the 12 million hectares of farmlands in the country, 3.1 milion hectares are devoted to coconut plantations. The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has even developed 15 hybrids and one open pollinated variety, which can yield 4-6 tons per hectare per year enough to meet more than 5 percent blend requirements”, the former senator stressed.
Zubiri was the principal author of the Biofuels Act. He stressed that the NBB was mandated by the law to recommend to the DOE within two years upon the effectivity of the law the maximum blending targets to promote the wider utilization of biodiesel and allow a meaningful contribution of this alternative fuel to the country’s energy consumption.
Zubiri also noted that today’s world copra prices dropped significantly from P61 a kilo in April 2011 to just about P25 a kilo as of December 2012. To help our coconut farmers, who constitute not only the largest land-based agricultural sector but also the poorest, he stressed that the government must help them by increasing the local demand for the country’s energy requirements.
In addition to creating financial benefits to the coco farming community, additional coco-biodiesel blend would help lessen our dependense on imported oil which has becoming a constant headache of our transport sector given the unabated increase of diesel fuel in the domestic market,” Zubiri pointed out.
Increasing the biodiesel blend can further improve the country’s air quality. With the use of 1 percent coco-biodiesel alone, it has impacted the environment positively as Ambient Air Quality Monitoring done by the DENR – Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) reported a reduction in total suspended particles by 24.2% six months after the implementation of the Biofuels Act. “So, what more if we increase the blend to 5 percent?”, Zubiri added.