LIBMANAN, CAMARINES SUR—The Bicolanos of Camarines Sur province have billions of reasons to be thankful on the birthday of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s son on Thursday.
On the 34th birth anniversary of Rep. Dato Arroyo of Camarines Sur’s first district, Ms Arroyo brought cheer to Libmanan residents when she announced several projects lined up until 2010 for the district.
Altogether, the total cost of the projects amounted to more than P3 billion.
Ms Arroyo told a crowd in the village of Bahay here that her administration was setting up a $28-million biomass power plant (BPP), which is expected to generate 10 megawatts of electricity using agricultural wastes like coconut husks, pili nut shells, grass and other biomass that can be fed to its engine.
P129M for reforestation
Saying she was giving out gifts on her son’s birthday, Ms Arroyo also told residents she would be distributing checks amounting to P129 million for reforestation projects in the 10 towns of the first district.
She also announced the start of the implementation of the Libmanan-Cabusao irrigation and dam project worth P700 million, which will improve irrigation in 4,000 hectares. She said the bidding of the project had already been opened.
Ms Arroyo said the irrigation and dam project in the towns of Libmanan and Cabusao sought to redesign the irrigation facility here from a motor pump-driven to gravity-driven irrigation facility with the construction of a dam.
She also said P600 million had been allotted for the embankment of the Bicol River in Libmanan town.
Another P800 million has been earmarked for the building of a bridge from Libmanan to Canaman in order to shorten travel time—to 20 minutes from an hour—going to Naga City.
18 months to build
The first of its kind in Camarines Sur, the BPP will augment the supply of electricity in Dato’s residential town once it is operational.
Martial Beck, chief executive officer of Novergy, a French company contracted to build the BPP, said construction would take 18 months so that by early 2010 the project shall have been finished.
Beck said the BPP would require 200 tons of agricultural wastes every day, or 20-30 trucks of them, to produce the 10-MW power.
Ms Arroyo said that being a watershed area, Camarines Sur’s first district was very important for reforestation as part of the Bicol River Basin Water Management Project (BRBWMP) that the Philippine government and the World Bank agreed upon in 2001.
The BRBWMP aims to improve the watershed areas, water control and irrigation in the Bicol River Basin area.
On Monday, Ms Arroyo was in Camarines Norte province for groundbreaking ceremonies, lowering the time capsule of a biomass boiler facility (BBF) in the sprawling complex of Pan Century Surfactants Inc. (PCSI), which will invest $1 million in the project.
PCSI is an Indian-owned company operating a chemical plant that produces premium quality fatty alcohol, fatty acids and refined glycerin.
Tax complaints
The occasion was attended by Jose Panganiban Mayor William Lim; Barangay Osmeña chair Salvador Tabirao; Dinesh Shukla, PCSI president and chief executive officer; Hanuman Prasad Jalan, PCSI vice president for finance; Nitin Janarda Deshmukh, PCSI assistant vice president for marketing, and Shishir Garg, PCSI finance manager.
Ed de Leon, director of the Philippine Information Agency in Bicol, said Ms Arroyo also sought to thresh out the complaints that the PCSI had raised about high water rates and the P20-million tax the Bureau of Internal Revenue had demanded from the Indian company.
De Leon said Ms Arroyo met with PCSI officials but made no specific commitments on the issues they raised.
He said the PCSI had been operating in Camarines Norte since November 2005, producing refined glycerin and fatty acid residue that are used mainly in making detergents, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and personal care products.
A corporate profile of the PCSI showed that its owner, the Aditya Birla Group, is among the largest Indian business houses with more than $5.6 billion in revenues over its 50 years of operation in India and 30 years operation outside its country of origin, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt and the Philippines.
