PGMA satisfied with San Carlos bioethanol plant
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SAN CARLOS CITY, Negros Occidental -- President Gloria Macapagal –Arroyo, through a message, expressed
satisfaction over the launching of the P3-billion San Carlos BioEnergy Inc. plant, which, she said, is a
realization of her dream to make the country less dependent on imported fuel.
The President, was to lead in the groundbreaking ceremony of the country’s first bio-ethanol plant. She failed
to make it though because of bad weather. Instead, she sent Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes to represent her
and deliver her message.
Reyes said the President hoped that more bio-ethanol plants would be put up in Negros’ sugar mills to feed
the requirements not only of motor vehicles, industrial equipment and electrical appliances but also to supply
power to the main electric grids of the country.
He said the President, who monitored the construction, is glad the plant has became operational to benefit the
farmers and growers.
“She also directed me to ask your other concerns, and if I could resolve them at my level then I should do so
and just keep her posted on whatever actions I have taken,” Reyes said.
Jose Mari Zabaleta, chairman of SCBI, reported that the plant is the first to get the approval for its carbon
credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.
The SCBI, which is funded by the Development Bank of the Philippines, buys sugarcane for ethanol
conversion from planters in this city and surrounding areas.
With SCBI’s operations, plantation owners and farmers now get better prices for their produce. The city is now
considered a “planter’s market,” with sugarcane price rising to over P1,700 per 50 ton cane from less than P1,
500 per ton cane in the previous year.
In 1908, Reyes pointed out, the first sugar syrup factory was established at the San Carlos mill. “Now after 100
years, we are putting up the first bioethanol plant in the country right here,” he said.
Reyes said he shares the President’s hopes that the San Carlos bioethanol plant will be replicated all over the
country so that “we can finally liberate ourselves from the uncertain fuel oil situation and promote cleaner
energy in our local industries.”
“We’re (an ideal country) for renewable energy because we have abundant supply of geothermal, solar, wind,
coastal and hydro power,” Reyes said.
“Nothing,” he said, “should stop us from going renewable. We have what it takes to fulfill this dream and our
laws are there to support in this direction.”
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More LGUs heed call to establish MRFs
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More local government units (LGUs) heed the call to establish sufficient materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to
help reduce the country’s garbage and stall the creeping effects of global warming and climate change.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today expressed elation over a report made by Environment Secretary Jose
Atienza Jr. that Metro Manila has a compliance rate of 41 percent in the establishment of sufficient materials
recovery facilities.
Undersecretary Carlos A. Garcia VI of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate
Change assisted in briefing the President. Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tinga, Rep. Henry Duenas Jr., Vice
Mayor George Elias, and the city’s 28 barangay chairmen were on hand.
Taguig has a 54 percent compliance, the second highest in the metropolis.
Garcia told the President that Santiago City in Isabela has a solid waste management compliance rate of 64.8
percent, or 23 MRFs in its 37 barangays, the highest in the “2009 Zero Basura Olympics” conducted by the
DENR in Region 2.
The President is briefed every Friday on the progress made by local government units in establishing MRFs
and other anti-climate change programs.
Garcia reported that through President’s Upland Development Program in Isabela, contractors are reforesting
denuded areas of Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park. The park is home to the endangered Philippine Eagle.
Atienza said his agency will strive to increase the country’s national MRF compliance rate, which now stands at
14 percent, compared to the minus 10 percent at the start of the President’s term in 2001.
The President will host the first International Conference on Green Industry in Asia (ICGIA) at the Philippine
International Convention Center from Sept. 9 to 11.
The conference will highlight the adoption of a ministerial declaration and plan of action that features a
mechanism for the regular review of progress towards the greening of industries in Asia.
The President wants the Philippines to participate actively in the United Nations Climate Change Conference
scheduled in Copenhagen in December.
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ASEAN comes up with common position on climate change
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South East Asian countries are close to coming up with a common agreement on efforts to reverse the effects
of climate change under which the Philippines will commit to cut its carbon emission by 80 percent.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in a press briefing today the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) is working on a united position on climate change.
“I think we are reaching a consensus,” Remonde said. “(Secretary Heherson) Alvarez is seeing the possibility
at a more solid Asean position on the issue of carbon cutting.”
Climate change is an issue that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is focusing on due to its potentially huge
impact on the country. She has earlier issued Executive Order EO 774 which reorganized the Task Force on
Climate Change into 14 task groups, each one headed by Cabinet members.
“The president often says that our country is a net taker (in potentially catastrophic damage) of climate change.
We contribute very little to the global emission of greenhouse gases which cause climate change, but we are
disproportionately affected by it,” said Remonde.
EO 774 is supplemented by EO 785 which mandates the development of a national climate change
framework.
Alvarez, the Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change, has been authorized to commit the
country’s plan to cut its carbon emissions by up to 80 percent.
“This is way in excess (of) protocol standards. (But) the president believes that the choice between economic
development and environmental protection is a false choice. Both are essential and can be pursued through
appropriate technology and policy,” he said.
The Philippines, as a developing country, is not obliged under the climate change agreement known as the
Kyoto Protocol, to commit a carbon emission reduction.
But it is island countries, poorer countries in particular, that are foreseen to bear the brunt of nature’s rage
when it happens.
“Were sea levels to rise by a few inches because of global warming, the United States might close only a few
acres of coastal land. But an archipelagic country like the Philippines could end up losing entire islands to the
rising waters,” said the Press Secretary.
Several indicators give warning to the destruction climate change may cause the country if the warnings are
ignored.
While scientists monitoring global mean temperature have been noting a temperature increase of 0.2 to 0.6
degrees yearly in the last 140 years globally, the increase has been even remarkably higher in the Philippines,
rising by 0.8 degrees.
Global warming is feared to cause collapse of ice caps, glaciers and ice sheets in the Arctic. An increase in
earth’s temperature by one Kelvin is said to multiply three to five times in the Polar region, causing melting of
the icebergs, according to Filipino scientist Josefino C. Comiso, a climate change expert from National
Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA).
This may cause sea level to rise by seven meters which can submerge cities in the world including Manila ,
Cebu, and Davao .
Asean countries recognize their intensified vulnerability to the effects of climate change as most member
countries have been experiencing extreme weather events which are indicative of disastrous calamity.
Asean ministers have been generally looking at a common agreement on addressing environmental
concerns including biodiversity, climate change, environmental education, water resources management,
promotion of environmentally sound technology and cleaner production, and solid waste and hazardous waste
management.
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