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FORT RAMON MAGSAYSAY, Palayan City: President Arroyo
ordered on Sunday the Department of National Defense (DND) and the
Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC)—Alternative Fuel Corp. to
expand the jatropha plantation within this vast military
reservation.
Arroyo, after being briefed by
PNOC and military officials on the project, set foot on the nursery
of 1.5 million jatropha seedlings here.
The nursery, according to PNOC
chair Renato Velasco measures five hectares while the actual
plantation is 500 hectares.
Velasco said the area is now
planted to one million jatropha plants, being attended by 250
workers who used to be jobless people of adjacent communities.
Velasco said that upon Arroyo’s
instruction, the DND and the PNOC would soon come up with a new
memorandum of agreement to cover 2,000 hectares more for jatropha, a
plant variety found to be rich source of biofuels.
Sec. Estrella Alabastro of
Science and Technology said the government is mandated by law to
implement the mixing of five percent of biodiesel to diesel fuels
and 10 percent of bio-ethanol to gasoline.
Alabastro said, “it is
certainly” a help to cushion the impact of increasing prices of
petroleum products in the world market.
Gov. Aurelio Umali, Rep. Cherry
Umali of Third District, accompanied Arroyo, Major Gen. Ralph
Villanueva who is commander of the Army’s Seventh Infantry
Division that hosts the project, Army Chief Gen. Victor Ibrado and
other ranking officials.
--Armand M. Galang
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