MAOIST REBELS ATTACK PHILIPPINE BIOFUEL PLANTATION

Sep­tem­ber 11 2008 -
Maoist-led guer­ril­las raid­ed a state-owned plan­ta­tion used for bio­fu­el pro­duc­tion in the cen­tral Philip­pines, the first attack on an alter­na­tive ener­gy invest­ment, an army offi­cial said on Thurs­day.

Sep­tem­ber 11 2008 -
Maoist-led guer­ril­las raid­ed a state-owned plan­ta­tion used for bio­fu­el pro­duc­tion in the cen­tral Philip­pines, the first attack on an alter­na­tive ener­gy invest­ment, an army offi­cial said on Thurs­day.

The rebels left leaflets denounc­ing the oper­a­tions of a facil­i­ty pro­duc­ing bio­fu­els from cas­sa­va and jat­ropha, a drought-resis­tant plant, which com­petes for crops with food pro­duc­tion in the main­ly agri­cul­tur­al South­east Asian nation.

Com­mu­nist New Peo­ple’s Army (NPA) rebels stormed a jat­ropha plan­ta­tion on Negros island on Tues­day, burn­ing equip­ment and stop­ping work­ers from haul­ing lum­ber, Colonel Cesar Yano, a brigade com­man­der on Negros, told reporters.

“The work­ers were not harmed,” Yano said.

The rebels oppose the use of food for ener­gy pur­pos­es, tar­get­ing the 2‑billion peso ($42 mil­lion) ethanol project because it would plant jat­ropha trees instead of sug­ar­cane and rice, the tra­di­tion­al sta­ple, Yano said.

Jat­ropha is con­sid­ered to be one of the most promis­ing sources of bio­fu­els.

The 10-hectare jat­ropha plan­ta­tion in Tam­lang val­ley also sits on what was a rebel strong­hold before troops drove the NPA guer­ril­las deep­er into the moun­tains.

The bio­fu­el plan­ta­tion is a joint ven­ture between the gov­ern­ment and Tam­lang Val­ley Agri Devel­op­ment Corp, a com­pa­ny formed by a local alco­hol firm and a polit­i­cal clan relat­ed to the finance sec­re­tary.

The gov­ern­ment has a 35 per­cent stake in the plan­ta­tion. There was no imme­di­ate reac­tion from the own­ers.

The Philip­pines has been pro­mot­ing the cul­ti­va­tion of crops suit­ed for bio­fu­els to lessen its depen­dence on cost­ly import­ed crude oil.

The coun­try imports near­ly all of its crude oil needs.

The rebels have stepped up attacks on Negros after an army bat­tal­ion was removed from the island a month ago and was sent to rein­force troops fight­ing Mus­lim rebels on the south­ern island of Min­danao, offi­cials said.

Mani­la has been bat­tling Maoist-led guer­ril­las active most­ly in the main island of Luzon and in the cen­tral Philip­pines for near­ly 40 years in a con­flict that has killed more than 40,000 peo­ple and stunt­ed invest­ment in the resource-rich coun­try.

The rebels tar­get mines, plan­ta­tions, log­ging and tele­phone com­pa­nies to scare for­eign investors and raise funds.