MANILA, Philippines -- Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago wants the government to go slow in the implementation of the Biofuels Act which she authored, sponsored, and successfully shepherded into becoming a law last year.

“Biofuel is land-based and will eventually compete with food. Because the Philippines has a small land area, biofuel production will tend to encroach on food production. Corporations are already searching for millions of hectares for jatropha alone. We have to step on the brakes and decelerate,” she said.

Santiago was reacting to the statement of a Nobel laureate that biofuel development is counterproductive because it produces little energy.

Last week, Dr. Hartmut Michel, 1998 Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, suggested that more money be put in wind power as an alternative source of energy.

Santiago, who chairs the Joint Congressional Power Commission, said she will write Senate President Manuel Villar and House Speaker Jose De Venecia to provide funds for the newly created Biofuels Oversight Committee, to ensure that “food acreage will not be prejudiced by biofuel acreage.”

The Biofuels Act requires a minimum one percent biodiesel blend in diesel fuel and five percent bioethanol blend in gasoline fuel. The law is expected to convert farmlands for food into farmlands for sugarcane, corn, cassava, nipa, jatropha, palm, soy, grapeseed, and coconut.

“The Biofuels Act is only a cushion for the global increase in oil prices. It is only meant to be a run-up to the Renewable Energy Bill, which I will sponsor in the Senate when session opens at the end of the month,” Santiago explained.

“The Biofuels Oversight Committee is intended not only to ensure that the law will reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil, but also to prevent corporate greed and political opportunism from endangering food security,” she added.

Santiago, who also chairs the Senate energy committee, said that at a recent meeting, her committee voted to adopt all the proceedings of the prior Congress. This means that the proposed Renewable Energy Bill can go immediately without additional public hearings to the plenary session for debate.

“The Biofuels Act merely addresses energy use in the transport sector. But the renewable energy bill will cover all energy applications outside the transport sector,” she said.

Santiago said that the main emphasis of the renewable energy program should not be biofuel but hydropower, geothermal, solar, wind, and biomass power.

“Some politicians have over-hyped the Biofuels Act to burnish their image, thus misleading the public. The Biofuels Act raises a serious debate on food versus biofuels in a small island country like ours,” she said.

The administration senator said that during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s state visit to Spain, Spanish businessmen expressed strong interest in helping the development of wind energy in the Philippines.

Santiago said that the renewable energy bill, like the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), will establish a renewable energy market and a wholesale electricity spot market.

“The renewable energy bill provide for the green energy option, which gives consumers the choice to use renewable energy, and accelerate open access,” she said.

Santiago said that the renewable energy bill will provide fiscal incentives to eligible proponents such as income tax holiday, preferential realty tax rate, exemptions from import duties, and reduction of the government share from royalties.