Aboitiz Power Corp President (AP), Erramon Aboitiz, announced the latest project of AP which is the P6B Tamugan-Suawan hydro project in Mindanao. Target completion date is 2010. Funding for the project will come from borrowings from financial institutions (70%) while the remaining 30% will come from the company’s coffers.
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PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC) recently signed an agreement for a JV with the Provincial Government of Quezon for a 100,000 hectare Jatropha plantation. Funding will be provided by the Land Bank of the Philippines to the tune of P4.3 Billion ($1=P42). The plan is to develop a jatropha nursery, processing plants and refineries. The land allocated was said to be marginal, therefore making it unsuitable for planting food crops.
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Philippine Senator, Lito Lapid, passed a bill to give a 20% gasoline discount to the nation’s elderly. It was summarily quashed by the Senate committee on Social Justice. The senators instead said that they will push for more medical discounts and health benefits for the elderly as well as a P1000 pension.

The elderly and gasoline owner representatives said that the bill was not practical. On the side of the elderly, they said that not much senior citizens own a car (should they be even allowed to drive?) while the gas owners said that the discounts are too huge that they will incur losses.
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Spanish economic counselor Javier Alvarez brought 23 firms along for a two-day Spain-Philippines business meeting where they will partner up with local counterparts to look for industries in the Philippines to invest in. Some of these companies are keen on investing in the Philippine Energy Sector.

These firms are Abengoa Bioenergia, S.A, Guascor S.A., Isofoton S.A, Advena Consulting, Domingomonserrat Enginyeria S.L., Tecnica Y Construccion De Catalunya SL., and Geobat Energia, S.L.
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