Ducky Paredes

“(C)arbon dioxide (CO2) becomes a valuable raw material since the algae will need vast amounts of CO2 to produce their oil. CO2 then would become a valuable resource rather than a pollutant.”

by Ducky Paredes

While the unlikely news that lumad plantations in Northern Mindanao will soon be shipping out 30 million gallons of jatropha oil to Monterey, California-based Abundant Biofuels Corporation (as reported by the Philippine News Agency (PNA) is a good one, still there is the possibility that we may be betting on the wrong biofuel. According to the PNA, “Abundant Biofuels offers long-term contracts of up to 10 years in multiples of 50,000 barrels of jatropha oil and even provides project financing.”
The company bagged what it described as the “largest contract ever for non-food biodiesel feedstock” last April with Jatropha BioJet Corp., which entered a 10-year supply contract for five million barrels per year with Abundant Biofuels.
According to the PNA report, “Abundant Biofuels’ Philippine subsidiary formed a partnership in 2007 with the Supreme Council of Datu Alimaong – the Holy Warriors (SCODA), which represents ancestral domain holders in Northern Mindanao.
“The Philippine subsidiary, where SCODA chairman Apo Amay Tawahig is a board member, has jatropha plantations in various ancestral domains in Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon as part of the Tahas Kasla or Project Jatropha with SCODA.
“Some 60,000 hectares were initially identified as plantation sites, to be expanded over three years to cover 260,000 hectares. The lumads will receive profit shares as defined in the partnership with SCODA.”
In fact, even if the report is 100% accurate (although I doubt that so many jatropha trees have been planted in the area – where I used to live — as to provide a steady supply of oil), still jatropha and other agricultural crops may actually turn out to be not as good a source of oil as something more easily available to us – the lowly algae (damong dagat, in Tagalog).
A recent issue of The Economist cites Exxon as having invested heavily — $300 million initially with a further $300m to come if things go well – into algae as our future source for “biofuels that will chemically resemble the stuff that pours out of existing oil refineries—i.e. hydrocarbons.” Most species of algae make oil, which they store as a foodstuff against an uncertain future. By harvesting these algae, one would already have a better yield on a per hectare basis (up to 10 times more) than planting trees, corn or any other agricultural crop for biofuel. And the future of algae as oil source does not end there.
Others (Exxon included) are looking to find a species that can be genetically altered to secrete their oil. According to the Economst, “the ideal species will be able to stand up to intense illumination (more light means faster photosynthesis) and heat (for the high levels of sunlight required will also warm things up). It will also need to be resistant to viruses, which will otherwise be a big threat to such a concentrated population of identical organisms.”  And if no suitable species exists, then a new species will be created!
And, the great thing about this is that carbon dioxide (CO2) becomes a valuable raw material since the algae will need vast amounts of CO2 to produce their oil. CO2 then would become a valuable resource rather than a pollutant. Perhaps, in the future we will find CO2 pipelines that will bring this to the algae fields.
In the meantime, there are research groups in the Philippines that are also working with algae as a possible source for future oil. The Ateneo de Manila University’s Environmental Science Department is one.
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It would seem to me that there really is no need to even talk to the drug companies about their pricing. RA 9052 (Universally Accessible, Cheaper and Quality Medicine Act of 2008) allows the parallel importation of patented medicine from other countries where the prices are significantly lower than the prevailing price in the Philippines. This makes a lot of sense since if the same pills are available elsewhere, clearly, the drug companies in the Philippines are pricing their medication not with a view of serving the consumer but as predators who will make from the market whatever they can.
The government should just outright bring in medicines from other countries that sell them cheaper.
In fact, it is not a well-known fact that there are medicines that are Philippine-manufactured which are sold in Hong Kong, Bangkok and other South East Asian countries cheaper than they are sold in the Philippines. The excuse of the drug company is that there are even more effective medicines in the other countries that are cheaper than the Philippine brand; thus, to be able to compete, they have to bring down their price.
Sounds reasonable? But, wouldn’t it also be reasonable to conclude that if they can sell cheaper outside their country of manufacture, then, they must be using predatory pricing in their prime and native market. After all, for the pills to get to Hong Kong or anywhere else outside the country, they would have the additional expense of shipping them.
One has to wonder why we are treating these companies with kid gloves when they are clearly predators of the worst kind.
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“More and more, people are making choices, not from the inner realm of faith, conscience, values, truth, but from the seductive voices coming from the outside, of gain, profit, public opinion, convenience and fashion. People are becoming weaker in the habit of finding in the depths of the heart the answers to difficult emerging questions. On the other hand, if one looks at the alumni we are proudest of as products of the Jesuit educational system, I think we will find in them a certain of depth of perception, thinking, commitment, and character, and the habit of deciding from inside.” — Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., Superior General, Society of Jesus
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hvp 07.20.09)