The very influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has announced its opposition to the biodiesel project of Pacific Bio-Fields Holdings.
Specifically stating that its planned use of over 600,000 hectares of government owned land as being exploitative and having a negative effect on landless farmers and fisherfolk who have yet to benefit from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
CARP is a law that gives land to the landless in the form of favorable rates of payment that the farmer should payback in a span of 25 years. According to the law, idle public lands and most agricultural lands can be subjected to CARP.
According to them, the 600,000 hectares (found in the Ilocos Province), is more than one half of the entire land reform target of CARP.
Pacific Bio-Fields Holdings PLC of Japan had entered into a joint venture with Bio-Energy NL Inc. (BENLINC). They are set to build a P3.5 Billion biodiesel processing plant that will churn out 24,000 tons of coconut methyl esthers (CME) a year that will be exported to the Japanese market.
[source]
Category: Biodiesel
