The militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement) called for the review of the Biofuels Law fearing that jathropa planting would intensify land grabbing and peasant displacement.
BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 28, August 19-25, 2007
The militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement) called for the review of the Biofuels Law fearing that jathropa planting would intensify land grabbing and peasant displacement.
The Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) heads this project. The KMP opposes the setting up of a jathropa farm in Quezon which it said would cause the displacement of farmers.
According to the government, the country could save as much as $2 billion annually if it shifts from imported diesel to locally-produced biodiesel. The country imports about $7 billion worth of oil and petroleum products, 25 percent of which is diesel.
Three kilos of tuba-tuba or jathropa seeds or nuts could produce a liter of bio-diesel. Tuba-tuba bio-diesel readily mixes with diesel fuel and can run any diesel engine without modification.
However, Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, KMP chairman and concurrent president of Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Party-List, cited studies saying that “it is only commercially viable when vast tracts of land are allotted for jatropha, sugar cane or cassava plantations.” He added that a bio-fuel plant would need at least 7,000-8,000 hectares to produce 120,000 liters of ethanol per day.
“This was what Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo meant when she said that 2 million hectares of public lands would be planted to jathropa,” he said.
Mariano said that this project would only favor big landlords and transnational corporations like Saudi Aramco, Bronzeak Phils.(British), Marubeni (Japanese) and Toyo Engineering (Japan). These four companies have a collective target of at least 1 million hectares. “Now, where could they get a contiguous land that large but on current farms, tilled by peasants today,” asked Mariano.
The peasant leader also said that this project would intensify “monopoly and reconcentration of land to the hands of big landlords and trans-national corporations.” Since these plantations are exempted from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), Mariano said that those calling for its extension “are definitely anti-peasant and pro-landlord.”
Aside from possible displacement, Mariano said that land conversion for biofuel plantations also threatens the country’s food security. He also said that there have been studies saying diluted biofuels have a “negligible effect on improving the environment and the only ones benefiting from it are the oil corporations which are producing it.”
At the very least, Mariano called for the review of the Biofuels Law and suspension of its implementation “before more peasants are displaced and the nation’s food security be put into danger.” (Bulatlat.com)
