DENR chief wants review of $200-M jathropa deal

MANILA, Philippines – Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza advised yesterday Undersecretary Eleazar Quinto, Philippine Forest Corp. officer-in-charge, to double-check the details before signing the $200-million jathropa contract which Senate star witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. had drafted with an American firm.

“It is just an advice to Quinto... for him to check and double check all the details of the MOU first just to make sure that the provisions would be beneficial to the country because this is one of the projects finalized by Lozada,” Atienza told The STAR.

“We all know the charitable record of Lozada giving away lands to members of his family and to himself. It is just an admonition on my part because Lozada gave me a raw deal and now has put me in an embarrassing situation. I have no more full trust in him after what we have uncovered and discovered about his shenanigans at the Philforest during his term.”

Atienza said the official signing of the $200-million jathropa production contract by Quinto will push through in California next week.

“The signing of the contract would proceed as normal... It is just a friendly advice,” he said.

Last Feb. 15, Atienza named Quinto OIC of Philforest under the supervision and control of the DENR, after Lozada resigned last month.

Prior to Quinto’s designation, Philforest program development manager Erwin Santos was temporary chief for a week.

Santos was replaced after coming out on national television, sobbing and revealing alleged questionable transactions made by Lozada.

Recently in San Francisco, Rene Lacsina, president and chief executive officer of Bio-Fuels Philippines Inc., signed the company’s first investment in the Philippines, the $200-million jathropa production contract entered into with the Philippine Agriculture Development Corp. (PADC).

The Abundant Biofuels Corp. (ABC), based in Monterey, California, will operate the jathropa production and refinery business in the country through its subsidiary, Bio-Fuels Philippines Inc.

The PADC is also a government corporation under the control and supervision of the Department of Agriculture, the lead agency in jathropa production, along with the DENR and the Department of Agrarian Reform.