Yet last year, a price manipulation scandal broke out involving PSALM’s trading teams, which were found to have engaged in uncompetitive behavior in the electricity spot market. The Enforcement and Compliance Office (ECO) of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC), which oversees the power market, found PSALM liable for abusing its market power by simultaneously raising the market clearing prices for three plants: Ilijan natural gas plant, and the coal-fired thermal power plants in Sual and Pagbilao.

But the Energy Regulatory Commission ordered its own investigation terminated, finding no prima facie evidence of market abuse against PSALM. The regulatory agency likewise dismissed ECO’s findings as mere “speculation, conjectures or guesswork.”

Maitet Diokno-Pascual, who has looked into ERC’s handling of PSALM’s market abuse, is aghast. “The ERC has a very extensive market data that showed exercise of market power,” she says. “But instead of using that as evidence, it looked for price-fixing between NPC and PSALM. It didn’t find any precisely because that’s not how the abuse took place.”

The ERC is more known to the public as the agency that rules on petitions on power rate hikes. But the independent, quasi-judicial regulatory body has more than that on its plate, as the PSALM case shows.

Pascual says that ERC’s “narrow understanding” of market power abuse will cost consumers P9 billion. That is the amount PSALM is collecting from WESM after the ERC decision, and which PSALM now wants Meralco and other utilities to collect from consumers.

ERC is made up of five commissioners, all of them appointed by the president. Its current head is former Isabela Representative Rodolfo Albano Jr. Some have taken issue with the ERC’s independence, but independent industry consultant Edna Espos — who does not hide her dismay with the ERC for its handling of the WESM price manipulation case — says she has no quarrel with whoever heads the agency “for as long as they do it right.”

The FDC’s Pascual, however, doubts if the ERC understands its accountability to the consuming public. At least on one occasion, she says, it has even held its hearing for a rate-increase petition in the very office of the private utility it is supposed to regulate. “Maybe,” she says, “it (ERC) sees itself as a guardian of the (power sector) reforms, as a partner of the industry players, more than a protector of public interest.”

Both erstwhile government energy chiefs Raphael Lotilla and Francisco Viray are more understanding. “I think they’re doing their best considering the environment they’re working in,” says Viray, noting that everybody — the government, the private sector, the ERC — went through a learning curve with EPIRA. He also says the government set a very tight timetable for the law’s implementation.

Lotilla echoes his predecessor’s views. But he also says that there is a need to strengthen the ERC and suggests that there be more rules and guidelines “to effect things and help minimize the arbitrary exercise of discretionary power.”

SIX years after the enactment of the EPIRA, residential electricity rates have doubled, while industrial power rates are now the highest in Asia. [photo by Jaileen F. Jimeno]

At the time, no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said that had Congress failed to pass the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), it would have meant the continued ballooning of the debts of the National Power Corporation (NPC). That would have deprived the government of much needed funds to meet the Filipinos’ other basic needs, which the chief executive even itemized in terms of 16,000 classrooms, 127,000 hectares of irrigated land, 76,000 low-cost houses, or 6,300 kilometers of road.

That was more than six years ago. Today residential power rates are double what they were in January 2001, when Arroyo first came to power, while the country’s industrial electricity rates are the highest in Asia. At the end of 2001, NPC’s debts and obligations stood at P851 billion; by last year, the figure was hitting P1.2 trillion — and that was minus the P200 billion already absorbed by the national government in 2004 as mandated by EPIRA.

EPIRA or Republic Act No. 9136 has thus joined a long line of laws that have fallen short of their objectives because of a combination of flawed provisions and implementation. In the case of EPIRA, these include the continued tolerance of old contracts whose onerous provisions have only contributed to the ever-rising debts of the NPC, monopolistic practices that have resulted in the abuse of market power, and the slow pace of the ordered privatization that has hindered competition.

Ateneo de Manila University economics professor Aleta Domdom in fact says that EPIRA only introduced competition at the level of generation, with distribution still remaining monopolistic. “Even if the distributors face competition in terms of choosing among generators,” she says, “they still have the power to raise prices, of course, subject to the approval of the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission).”

To be sure, the surge in world oil prices — which last week reached $96 a barrel — has contributed as well to steep electricity rates, especially since many local power plants depend on imported oil-based fuel. But Domdom says this is just one of several external factors that the crafters of EPIRA failed to emphasize enough.

“The increase in world-oil price is greater than the appreciation of the peso-dollar exchange rate,” notes Domdom. “Then there is also the fast growth of China which competes in the demand for world energy sources. When demand increases, but supply remains the same, prices tend to increase.”

IRONICALLY, HIGH electricity prices are being used to lure in investors, says economist Maitet Diokno-Pascual, former president and now board member of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). She says the situation is due as well to the overpriced excess capacity from the contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) that the Ramos administration entered into during the energy crisis in the early 1990s.

“Its contractual obligations to the IPPs are the single biggest reason for the fatal financial bleeding of the NPC, posing additional burden to the government’s fiscal position,” seconds FDC power campaign team coordinator Maris de la Cruz.

Even the Department of Energy (DoE) has acknowledged that payments to IPPs — which last year amounted to P536 billion — explain why the Philippines continue to have higher electricity rates. Former energy secretary Raphael Lotilla, lamenting over a government decision two decades ago to honor all the country’s debts, remarks, “I wish we could undo all this, but this should also tell us that our policy decisions have an economic cost.”

With a strong peso, the NPC has managed to post remarkable net incomes in the last two years, sustaining a financial recovery in 2005 with profits of almost P86 billion. But it’s a turnaround from seven consecutive years of losses, with revenues largely going to payments to the IPPs. This is because of the take-or-pay provision in their power contracts that requires the NPC to pay for a fixed volume of electricity at fixed rates, whether or not the state-owned corporation actually uses the entire volume and whether or not the IPP actually produces the entire volume.

Of the 90 percent generating capacity that NPC pays IPPs for, only 10 to 40 percent is actually produced and used, says de la Cruz. And this is on top of other risk-free provisions in the contracts as fuel cost and foreign exchange loss guarantees.

The NPC has routinely passed on the bulk of the costs of these guarantees to consumers, reflected early on in electricity bills as the purchased power adjustment (PPA) but now hidden, FDC says, under “several categories but primarily under generation costs.”

In 2002, President Arroyo ordered a cap to what the NPC could recover from consumers for the IPP contracts; the charge thus shrunk from P1.25/kWh to 40 centavos/kWh. But this has proven disastrous to NPC as it slashed revenues by 85 centavos/kWh. After only two years, NPC had already absorbed a loss amounting to a staggering P16 billion. Today the NPC debt stock has a value of half a trillion pesos.

The government absorbs one-third of the NPC’s debts even as it incurs loans to restructure the entire power sector. Restructuring was part of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s 1995 energy policy that prescribed full recovery costs, reduction of subsidies, aggressive promotion of private sector involvement in the energy sector, and the creation of an enabling environment for private investors. EPIRA’s passage in 2001, in fact, was a condition for the release of much-needed loans from the ADB and Japan Export-Import Bank amounting to $950 million. Last December, ADB also extended a $450-million Power Sector Development Program loan, primarily meant for the servicing of NPC’s debts. The Bank estimates that about $9.1 billion would be needed to finance the power sector until 2010.

EPIRA WAS passed after seven long years of debates involving three Congresses. Its primary objectives include developing indigenous energy alternatives, lowering the high cost of electric power in the country, and encouraging private and foreign investment. It was supposed to set in motion the deregulation of the power industry through the privatization of at least 70 percent of NPC’s assets. This privatization, which is being handled by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), is among the preconditions for EPIRA’s envisioned open access and retail competition in which big consumers are free to choose from which to get their supply of electricity.

THE 600-MW Masinloc coal-fired thermal power plant in Zambales was recently bought at $930 million, more than the cost of a new plant. [photo courtesy of NPC]

Yet up until this year, only 11 percent of NPC’s generating assets in Luzon and Visayas had been privatized. Indeed, it was only last month that Calaca Holdco Inc., a consortium led by France’s Suez-Tractebel, won the bidding for the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired plant in Batangas for $786.53 million. There had been two failed biddings in the last three years mainly because of the absence of supply contracts assigned to it. (A transition supply contract is a power supply agreement offered to NPC customers while state-owned generation facilities are still undergoing privatization, as mandated by EPIRA.)

The Masinloc coal-fired plant had the same problem with supply contracts. But its sale in December 2004 failed because its declared buyer, YNN Pacific Consortium, turned out to be a mere broker, “not a legitimate player in the power industry,” as Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. put it.

Last July 26, PSALM finally declared a consortium led by Singapore’s AES Transpower Pte Ltd the winning bidder for the Masinloc plant. The consortium offered $930 million for the 600-megawatt facility in Zambales, a key component of the Luzon grid.

The sale of the two power plants now brings the status of privatization of NPC’s generation assets at 38.76 percent, equivalent to 1,680.5-MW capacity out of a total of 4,335.7 MW. This is only 11 percentage points shy of the 50-percent PSALM has targeted for the year. It therefore expects to achieve the 70-percent privatization level that would signal open access and retail competition by the end of 2008. (see Table)

Among the plants PSALM has lined up for privatization within the year are the 175-MW Ambuklao-Binga hydropower plant package (in November); the 192.5-MW Palinpinon geothermal facility; and the 146.5-MW Panay diesel-fired power plant package (in December). PSALM is also preparing to bid out the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) via a 25-year concession before year-end. TransCo was created under EPIRA to operate and maintain the NPC’s segregated transmission assets. But four rounds of bidding have already failed since 2003 because of the issue of securing a franchise with Congress — which issues one only after the concession is awarded.

YET FOR Francisco Viray, former energy secretary under President Fidel Ramos and now president of the PHINMA Group’s Trans-Asia Power Generation Corporation and Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corporation, the earlier delays may have even turned out to be a “blessing in disguise.”

“Delay was seen as negative in the EPIRA implementation. Now it’s a positive development,” he says, pointing to the good price government fetched from the sale of the two plants. He attributes this to a lesson learned from the failed biddings: that the plants need to have transition supply contracts to attract big players. Supply contracts of 265 MW and 287 MW had been secured for the Masinloc and Calaca plants, respectively, when they were finally sold.

	THE 100-MW Binga hydroelectric power plant in Itogon, Benguet, along with Ambuklao, will be up for privatization this November. [photo courtesy of PSALM]

But FDC’s Pascual comments, “They’re way off target so I guess any sale is good.” She thinks investor uncertainty or a lack of investor interest in the industry remains because of several factors, among them the small market for electricity sellers particularly given a situation of excess capacity.

“The biggest market, the most relevant market, would be the Meralco (Manila Electric Company) franchise area,” she says. “But the EPIRA allowed cross-ownership between distribution and generation, and allowed utilities like Meralco to enter into supply arrangements with sister generating companies. So what’s left of the Meralco market for the privatized NPC generators to compete over is quite small.”

Put in perspective, the Philippine market is a rather puny one as the country consumes only about 45,000 gigawatt-hours (gWh) of electricity in a year. Compare that, says Pascual, to the level of electricity consumption in Thailand and Indonesia, where it is slightly over 100,000 gWh, or over 200,000 gWh in Taiwan, and more than 300,000 gWh in South Korea. Moreover, the demand for electricity at peak levels is only in the range of 8,000 MW to 9,000 MW, while total installed capacity as of last year was at 15,803 MW.

“If you narrow it down further to the Luzon market,” says Pascual, “we’re talking of micro, not mini, levels here as far as the power sector is concerned.”

At the same time, Pascual is concerned over Masinloc’s (as well as Calaca’s) high price tag. Being a pivotal supplier, Masinloc could create a shortage in the market if its supply is withheld, thereby allowing it to raise spot market prices of electricity. “Wittingly or unwittingly,” Pascual says, “the ERC is now providing a new incentive to investors: ‘Buy this plant because it has market power, and we won’t penalize you for abusing it.’”

Independent consultant Edna Espos says the same thing. Privatization may be picking up, she argues, but it is mainly because investors are encouraged by the apparent lack of regulation to curb generation charges as shown by NPC rates both in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) and bilateral contracts.

Espos says that Masinloc’s clients should brace themselves for higher fees. She says the winning bid price of $930 million for the nine-year-old plant is already more than the cost of a new one. “They (Masinloc buyer) will be getting service from a second-hand plant that requires higher maintenance costs,” she says. “Of course, they will be charging all these costs to consumers.”

Still, she says that the high prices the plants are fetching could settle the issue of NPC’s stranded debts that, under EPIRA, will be imposed on electricity end-users. Stranded debts refer to any unpaid financial obligations of the NPC after the sale of its plants.

Viray likewise sees this as a possibility, at least for Masinloc and Calaca. He says the high prices they fetched should have totally wiped out their corresponding stranded debts.

THE 360-MW Magat hydropower plant in Isabela bought by the SN Aboitiz Power Corp. [photo courtesy of PSALM

BUT EVEN as the NPC’s monopoly is finally being dismantled, the restructuring of the power sector is actually seeing a market that is headed for greater concentration. Family-owned distribution firms as the Lopez-controlled Meralco and the Aboitiz-owned Visayan Electric Company (VECO) and Davao Light and Power have even been thriving under EPIRA. Meralco has been a major player in the power distribution sector for the past 102 years, serving all of Metro Manila and parts of its surrounding areas. VECO's franchise area consists of Metro Cebu and six neighboring municipalities.

“Just look at the WESM indicators of market concentration and you'll get the picture,” says Pascual, who points out that the Lopez and Aboitiz groups have been buying the NPC’s small hydropower plants.

Only four sets of electricity generators are involved in WESM: NPC, PSALM, Meralco's IPPs, and other IPPs. NPC and PSALM, both government corporations, account for 80 percent of available capacity in Luzon; Meralco IPPs take 19 percent while other IPPs have the remaining one percent. Meralco, by virtue of having sister companies and IPPs, gets to enjoy over 40-percent share in generated electricity.

If the private companies seem to be greedy, it’s because the law allows them to be so, says Espos. “Economically speaking, the business sector is expected to maximize profits,” she says. “But what the law should do is to provide them incentives so that they balance maximizing profits with the public interest.”

Espos says that EPIRA's objectives were for the most part good, only that everything went downhill from there. Any inconsistency with the law, she says, can only happen because the regulatory agency allows it. (see sidebar)

Lotilla, for his part, attributes whatever failings in the runup toward full competition to a still imperfect environment. He says that not all the needed elements are in place — like NPC assets not yet fully sold, Meralco's dominance on the distribution side, and so on. He says that until all its assets are privatized, the NPC remains a competitor to new plant owners in the power generation market. And since it’s a very young market, says Lotilla, it has to go “through birth pangs.”

LOTILLA ALSO acknowledges that EPIRA itself is an imperfect piece of legislation. In fact, it was a product of much compromise and negotiations, and was even tainted by allegations of bribery involving congressmen in the 11th House of Representatives. And as soon as she signed the power reform bill into law, President Arroyo had called on Congress to immediately start working on its amendments.

CONSUMERS and taxpayers, more than the government, are bearing the full burden of a policy reform measure as the EPIRA. [photo by Jaileen F. Jimeno]

Since the 12th Congress, Arroyo has been certifying the “urgent enactment of needed consensus amendments to the law” purportedly to level the playing field even more and to institute additional safeguards for consumers. In the 14th Congress, the president’s eldest son, Pampanga Congressman and House energy committee chair Juan Miguel ‘Mikey’ Arroyo, has filed an amendatory bill to hasten the privatization of NPC assets.

The changes being proposed include reducing from 70 percent to 50 percent the required generation capacity of NPC assets in Luzon and Visayas to be privatized, reducing from 70 percent to 50 percent the required portion of total energy output of IPPs to be transferred to IPP administrators, as well as allowing the national government to assume the NPC’s remaining financial obligations of P400 billion.

But with the recent successful auctions of the Masinloc and Calaca plants, whatever amendments being contemplated by legislators could be overtaken by the recent turn of events, says Viray.

Even industry players caution against amending EPIRA. They say what is urgently needed is its “proper and more determined” implementation. Officials of First Generation Holdings Corporation, for instance, think the proposal to privatize only half of NPC’s assets violates the spirit of the law to minimize, if not eliminate, state involvement in the power industry. First Gen President Federico Lopez even warned recently that any amendments would “crack open a hornet’s nest of controversy and uncertainty that will reverse all the gains achieved thus far.”

For civil-society stakeholders, though, the power sector needs nothing short of an overhaul. FDC’s Pascual says real change in the industry needs the participation of all the stakeholders, primarily the consumers.

“It has to start from below,” she says, “from the communities that do not enjoy electricity, to the communities that are being forced to accept dirty fossil fuel plants in the name of progress, to ordinary communities that can’t afford the high electricity rates we continue to pay despite the strong peso and so-called robust economy.”

These circumstances have brought about a shift in the discussion on climate change — from the realm of scientists, the academe, and policy makers, it is now taking place in the public arena. A new challenge for Greenpeace and other environmental groups is to make sure that the Filipino public is engaged and heed the warning against the dangers of climate change.

But how does one simplify the science of climate change while making sure that Filipinos don’t see it as trivial and of less importance to other raging issues? How does one educate people about this phenomenon to the point that they will rise into action? In a country troubled by pressing socioeconomic concerns such as poverty and armed struggle, how does one make an entire nation realize that if not addressed urgently, climate change has catastrophic consequences both to the Philippines and to the rest of the world?

As a green activist, these questions guide me in engaging the different sectors of our society — from the youth to school teachers, from professionals to homemakers, from the common Pinoy to our national government — about climate change. Although the task sounds simple, it is actually daunting. Similar to each region’s creativity and resourcefulness in cooking the perfect adobo, I have to develop new and innovative tools in presenting the climate change story to suit each Pinoy’s palate. And with the barrage of information practically thrown at people by television, radio, newspapers, and even billboards, it is a constant challenge for me to elevate the issue from the noise.

Frankly, were I not part of Greenpeace, I would be having a hard time understanding climate change as well, and its relevance in my life. But I was exposed to Greenpeace early — in high school, in fact, when I read about the organization and its anti-whaling campaign in National Geographic. I remember being amazed on how passionate the activists were in voicing out their beliefs.

But I didn’t have the chance to get involved with Greenpeace until 1999, when I was already in college. Some friends of mine asked me if I want to help out during Greenpeace’s Toxics Free Asia Tour. I said yes! I tried to help out in any way I could, from printing shirts to guiding fellow students during the Rainbow Warrior open-boat days, to making sure my fellow volunteers had food during lunch. I became more involved in the group after graduation, helping organize public events, participating in actions, becoming a member of SolarGeneration (a youth group initiated by Greenpeace) and an activist. Today I’m the Climate & Energy Campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia based in the Philippines.

OUR RAPID response team has borne witness and documented impacts of extreme weather events in the country, such as the 2004 drought in South Cotabato that affected almost 800,000 families in Mindanao, to the aftermath of typhoon Reming in the Bicol Region last December. These tragedies have resulted in the loss of lives and livelihood, as well as in the destruction of infrastructure. They have also amplified the lack of food and water and other basic services that majority of Filipinos suffer in provinces with high poverty incidence ratings.

The Philippines is a climate hotspot. As a developing country, with very little access to vital resources, it has a low ability to adapt and an even lower ability to cope with disasters brought about by the impacts of climate change. Yet, even with the emerging trends of climate variability, many provinces in the Philippines are still not aware of their vulnerability; much less are they able to prepare to cope with its impacts.

The amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that humans have released since the Industrial Revolution has drastically altered the natural processes of our planet including the climate. Human-induced climate change was brought about by different sectors and activities such as deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, and improper waste management. But the biggest culprit of all has been the energy sector.

Almost 70 percent of the Philippines’ energy mix comes from power plants that burn fossil fuel such as coal — the most carbon intensive and polluting power source. Less than one percent of our energy comes from solar and wind power. Greenpeace has conducted a series of tests on the ash fields of coal-fired power stations in the Philippines, including the biggest in Sual, Pangasinan and the dirtiest in Calaca, Batangas. The results revealed the insidious presence in the coal plant waste stream of hazardous substances such as mercury (a deadly neurotoxin) and arsenic (a known carcinogen), and raised the possibility of widespread toxic contamination in host and neighbouring communities.

Aside from the toxins, a coal-fired power plant like the 1,200-megawatt one in Sual will, for the duration of its 25-year contract, produce 238.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to more than 575.6 billion jeepneys simultaneously starting and traveling for a kilometer.

Although the government is well aware of these, it remains largely dependent on coal for its energy source. To us, it is clear that the well-being of Filipinos is being sacrificed by the government, which is also fueling climate change by expanding existing and building new coal-fired power stations in the country.

Of course, I’m no Al Gore. I don’t have his gravitas, and I can guess what people are probably thinking when they see someone as young as I am trying to talk to them about something that seems so complex. But I stand up and say what I have to say anyway, because I know if I do it right, they will cease to see the young woman before them and they will listen.

Fortunately, I don’t have to rely only on myself to convince people. Images, video footage, and maps have proven to be an effective tool in awakening Pinoys on the gravity of the situation.

Using the geographic information system (GIS), Greenpeace has mapped out areas in the Philippines that are under threat to sea-level rise because of climate change. As an archipelago with a coastline almost equal to the circumference of the earth, there is only one region in the Philippines not threatened by ocean water encroaching dry land: the Cordillera Administrative Region. This translates to displacement of families and damage to ecosystems such as beaches, mangroves, and coral reefs that are valued for its conservation efforts and tourism potential.

THE GREENPEACE sea level-rise maps have made it easier for people to understand what I am talking about when I do my spiels on climate change. These have also become part of our “Simple Lang, Save the Planet” campaign, which strives to educate and empower Pinoys from different walks of life to be part of the solution.

The campaign combines public outreach (school, village, and office tours), media (television commercials, print ads, and radio spiels) and new media (online petition and email groups) to introduce and amplify energy consciousness in Filipinos.

We also employ volunteers whom we call Climate Communicators for tours and exhibits. These volunteers include celebrities, students, architects, teachers, bankers, and homemakers. Each of them has gone beyond unplugging or switching off lights to reduce energy consumption and are now helping spread the word to the rest of the Philippines. Which is essentially this: A fundamental change in the way the world uses energy must take place within this decade in order to make a real difference in the fight to save the climate. To avert the worst impacts of climate change, the world must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050.

This is possible through an energy revolution, which requires a massive uptake of renewable energy combined with aggressive energy efficiency measures. An energy revolution will drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions emitted in the atmosphere and pave the way for cleaner energy that ensures our country’s energy security and independence as well as a safe environment and future for everyone.

Now all that can leave a newcomer to green issues going, huh? Actually, when we began designing the campaign, we started with the premise that each person has his or her own reason for supporting any advocacy or initiative. So we developed climate-change talking points based on what we think will grab our audience’s attention. For example, for the youth, we emphasize that the impacts that we are now experiencing is but the onset of climate change. Which, if not mitigated, will have the younger generation bearing the effects of more severe impacts. This is an injustice that the youth should not allow, especially if the decision makers of the present can do something about it.

For parents, we point out that the future generation, including their children, will bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change if nothing is done about it now. But we are also careful to note that helping the environment will not have only future benefits, but can have profound impacts in the present. Turning energy conscious and becoming efficient in the use of energy, for instance, may mean lower power bills.

For school administrators, we tell them that electricity savings can result to the reallocation of resources to purchasing of books, improvement of facilities, salaries of faculty, and maintenance. We also tell them that our materials can be used for a public awareness campaign or can be included in the curriculum.

For older audience, we ask them how it was before compared to the present. Is it hotter now? Is there a change in storm patterns or severity? And finally for legislators or local government units, we note that landmark policies and initiatives on climate change adaptation and mitigation are legacies that will be remembered by their constituents.

HONESTLY, IF some people drink coffee to jolt them from an uneventful afternoon or chocolate to satisfy their sweet tooth, I need to engage with the youth from time to time to keep my creative juices flowing and to shed the cynicism I sometimes feel when talking to a politician.

Leadership and political will from our legislators can go a long way in the fight for our basic right to live in a clean and healthy environment. But the reality is, it is not often that one comes across lawmakers who have these qualities. As a result, policies that are supposed to safeguard the environment and the health of the Filipino people are sometimes sat on (like the Renewable Energy Bill that has been pending for almost 12 years now) or are so diluted that they become ineffective. There have been legislators who have supported certain initiatives of Greenpeace, but it is a constant struggle to keep them involved and engaged.

It has also been a challenge to lure ordinary people into discussions about climate change. And it doesn’t even matter if you’re talking to an urban or rural audience. Urban areas, although more up to date to what’s happening globally, have such fast-paced lifestyles that you need to jolt people harder so that they would take notice of you. Urbanites are bombarded with information that campaigners have to make sure that the issue is not drowned out by all the noise. In the rural areas, meanwhile, the challenges beyond the language gaps include competing with concerns like where dinner for that day is going to come from (if any is coming at all), land tenure, and armed conflict. Provincial communities have to be reminded that climate change impacts will aggravate these concerns.

Yet there have been instances where members of remote communities have left me with much hope. Once, I was invited to facilitate a basic discussion on climate change to members of the Youth Advocates for Peace (YAP) in Mindanao. I saw how much they value their culture, heritage, and the environment. These aspects are clearly integrated with who they are and what they believe in. Some of them live in impoverished communities or are caught in the middle of an armed struggle. But this does not limit them from taking a stand for their future and making a difference. The older generation, especially our government officials, can definitely learn from them.

At the very least, I came away from that event inspired, energized, and even more at peace with the career I have chosen for myself. With Greenpeace, I need not compromise my passion, beliefs, and my future, unlike many of my peers. Greenpeace strengthened how I see my place in this planet — that I am part of my environment and that whatever I do to this only home that we have will eventually affect me and the ones I care about.

For more details, log on to www.greenpeace.org.ph or email your questions at info@ph.greenpeace.org.

THE Navals’ house on M. Viola Street inside the U.P. Diliman campus. [photo by Alecks P. Pabico]

Of course it didn’t use to look like this. But when Jimmuel Naval, an award-winning writer and Filipino professor, took over the house in August 2004, he consulted architect-friend Clifford Espinosa on how to make the place more suitable for his young family. By the time Espinosa was done with the revamp, almost a year had passed — and the house had a roof structure that was in complete disregard of the university’s building regulation.

“It’s an American-inspired design, suited more for heating back in the 1960s,” says Espinosa of the old roof. He explains that a 30-degree slope is more appropriate for the Philippines as it leads to less accumulation of dust, fallen leaves, rain, and even moisture.

The roof, however, was not the only innovation Espinosa introduced to what was once a standard university house. He raised the ceiling height and changed the flat, dropped ceilings into cathedral ones. He added windows and openings all around the house. Thus, the Navals now have the luxury of daylight illumination for practically the whole day, plus a constant supply of cool air. Professor Naval himself says they now use a low-power air-conditioning unit only occasionally, unlike when they used to live in the sweltering Hardin ng Bougainvilla, one of the university’s tenement housing complexes.

Espinosa says he is foremost a “spatialist,” or one who creates humanizing spaces. “The medium of architecture is space,” he declares. “Without space, light and air are impossible. Life is not possible.”

Yet in these days when global warming and climate change have become household bywords, there is a more fashionable term for Espinosa’s preoccupation: green architecture. The idea emerged in the last few years, particularly in the United States, as an offshoot of the mainstreaming of green awareness among consumers. Many people are paying more attention to the kind of food they eat, what they use in their homes, and how they can live healthier lives that are more attuned with Mother Earth.

For sure, environment-friendly and energy-efficient design has been with us since the days of the bahay kubo (nipa hut), and later adapted to suit the Spanish-era bahay na bato (literally house of stone). But Romulo de Jesus, a leading member of the Green Architecture Movement (GAM) of the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP), says green architecture has of late become imperative, in large part because it has become obvious that we humans can no longer continue with our wasteful and destructive ways.

BY DEFINITION, green architecture involves design that is environmentally sensitive, in harmony with the natural features of the sites, and energy-efficient. It employs materials that are ecological, recyclable, or are derived from sustainable sources. And it means buildings that last longer and are easy to maintain.

GAM started out as a committee of the 23,000-strong architects’ association back in 2000. But de Jesus says it has since evolved into an advocacy that continuously educates members on green-architecture principles so that they can apply these in their practice. At the same time, GAM reaches out to the academe, other allied professions, and the general public to spread the word about green architecture and its benefits.

“We encourage and promote the use of green building practices in all buildings we construct, remodel, and renovate,” de Jesus says, with the emphasis on incorporating Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) methods and techniques in the construction of facilities.

Adopted from the United States, LEED is a rating system that provides the building industry with nationally accepted standards for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. It promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit group composed of leaders from every sector of the building industry. It believes in transforming the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated so that these become environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.

FRONT balcony makes use of old wooden balusters from an ancestral house in Nueva Ecija. [photo by Alecks P. Pabico]

Given GAM’s expertise in the practice of green architecture, it has become a vital partner of the recently established Philippine Green Building Council (PhilGBC). Initially composed of representatives from the different sectors of the country’s building industry, the council has been expanded to include the business sector, particularly developers and property managers, academe, socio-civic and nongovernment organizations, and government agencies.

PhilGBC executive director Christopher de la Cruz says the group was a rather belated response to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act 9003), which mandated local governments to promulgate regulations requiring owners of premises containing six or more residential units to provide for waste segregation.

According to de la Cruz, architects had not anticipated the law’s implications on the building sector. In fact, they were unaware of the new law and so continued to use old design standards that only rendered their designs obsolete before construction even began. There was also the problem with securing building permits from local governments since these now required buildings to install solid waste management facilities.

These days, though, architects can refer to a design manual that integrates the provisions of RA 9003 in the architectural design of buildings. And just three months after it was officially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission last March, PhilGBC held its first Building Green Expo, during which a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the council and its partners to promote green building practices locally.

Foremost of these practices are improving air quality and water efficiency, promoting energy efficiency and conservation, establishing solid waste management practices, advancing ecologically friendly site development, and increasing the use of green materials in all phases of construction. The council is also spearheading efforts to develop a nationally accepted green building rating standard patterned after the LEED system.

ACTUALLY, SAYS de la Cruz, “there are many architects with so much expertise in green architecture, as well as engineers in the area of energy efficiency. But they are trapped in the cracks because there are developers who are dictating how things are done.”

WELL-placed windows and openings ensure ample light and ventilation. [photo by Alecks P. Pabico]

He cites the case of many high-rise residential and commercial condominiums whose developers think aesthetics is the more primary consideration. “They prefer glass buildings without regard for their proper lighting and ventilation,” de la Cruz remarks. “So their solution is to fill them up with air conditioners.”

Not that air conditioners are bad per se. But several architects now see these as a stopgap solution. Espinosa says these are “a selfish way of solving the problem because you only increase the heat of the outside environment.” That’s why, he says, he creates openings in specific areas of a house or building to lessen dependence on air conditioning.

Too, with the Naval house — which looks bigger than its 77-square-meter floor area because of its open design — cool room temperature is ensured, not by traditional cross-ventilation techniques, but by maximizing the benefits derived from the principle that hot air rises and cold air sinks. Here, says Espinosa, air circulation is not dependent on moving air. Warm air remains on top, with no heat descending, simply because of the difference in temperature.

Having such a constant storage of cool air, he adds, is also a function of the surrounding landscaping. “Para mas malamig ang loob ng bahay, dapat mas malamig ang immediate space sa labas (To ensure cool air inside, the immediate space outside should also have a supply of cool air),” he reasons. At the Naval house, narra trees offer ample shade and there’s vegetation in abundance. A pond in front of the house is even being considered as a future addition to the landscape.

And because there is no dampness inside, one bonus is that mosquitoes are not much of a problem. But birds are, says Jimmuel Naval; they are often lured into the house by its many openings. Naval suspects — but doesn’t mind — that the birds may have already built nests somewhere.

Espinosa says, though, that in the nearly 18 years that he has been an architect, and with 20 houses and buildings that he has so far built or renovated, he has almost always had quarrels with owners over the use of electric fans or air conditioners. Clients like the Navals, who are believers in his design ideas, are few, he says. He estimates that of his “natural architecture” concepts that treat climatic conditions as givens to be maximized for human comfort, only about 30 percent have been accepted by owners and eventually incorporated in the finished structures. But he insists, “It is vital for the house to breathe for it is the reason for it. Thus, natural light and air are the main components.”

ONE OBSTACLE to going natural is that it is perceived by many to have a high price tag. GAM’s de Jesus himself confirms that adding green building elements in a structure does cost a bit more — but only in the short-term, he clarifies. “It becomes cheaper in the maintenance side since the design is focused on energy savings, the comfort and well-being of residents and the surrounding community,” he says.

Incorporating green features into a building project entails what is called a first cost. But then there are also life-cycle costs, which take into account energy savings overtime, increased durability of materials, healthier, safer occupants, or enhanced productivity of workers (in the case of a workplace).

“There’s actually lesser cost in the long run,” says de la Cruz, adding that the PhilGBC aims to bring together buyers and sellers so they come to an understanding of the importance of having greener buildings. “(You) have a cleaner environment as payback. It will also help lessen pressure on the government to build more power plants.”

CATHEDRAL ceilings not only provide spaciousness but also introduced more natural light and ventilation in tandem with windows and openings all around. [photo courtesy of cliffordespinosa.com]

The good news is that the market is slowly maturing, given the practical applications of green techniques that are now being employed, mainly in commercial buildings. Laudably, the commercial sector is taking the lead as it accounts for about 30 percent of the country’s total energy consumption.

The design solutions laid out are a mix of old and new. There are, for example, tried-and-tested techniques like passive cooling (sun baffles, canopies, and retractable awnings), natural cross ventilation, natural lighting (light scoops), and solar panels. These are then combined with energy-saving compact fluorescent lights, LED (light emitting diode) for signages in lieu of neon, green elevators and escalators, dual piping systems that recycle waste water for use in flushing toilets, waterless urinals, and reed-bed systems using tambo grass as a low-cost alternative to waste water treatment.

On an even grander scale, leading property developer Ayala Land is completing its first green buildings: two business-process outsourcing office buildings referred to as Technopods, one at the U.P. North Science and Technology Park in Quezon City, and another in Nuvali, its proposed community of the future in a 1,600-hectare property in Canlubang, Laguna. Aside from avoiding a south or west orientation that turn them into heat traps, the buildings are equipped with picture windows for maximum natural daylight, a centralized air-conditioning facility that produces ice during off-peak hours for use to cool the system during the day, and toilets that use recycled water for flushing.

There is also the future headquarters of the Philippine Stock Exchange at the Bonifacio Global City, expected to be completed in three years, that Ayala Land and its partners say is to be designed in such a way that work stations are located within 12 meters of a window and natural lighting. But topping all these is the ambitious Nuvali sustainable development project, which envisions a new metropolis that integrates business, residential, educational, retail, and recreational uses in a spacious and green environment.

STILL, ONE need not have a Nuvali address to have a green house. As the Navals can attest, the likes of M. Viola Street in Area 3 at the U.P. Diliman campus will do just fine — so long as architects like Espinosa are allowed to ensure that the houses are “breathing” as well as they should.

ANOTHER of Clifford Espinosa’s ‘natural architecture’ projects. [photo courtesy of cliffordespinosa.com]

At the Naval house, the cool ambiance is also tempered by the warmth of weathered and battered wood that Espinosa collects not only as material for the houses he builds — and rebuilds — but also for his sculptural and furniture pieces. The trusses of the cathedral ceiling came from the Our Lady of Grace Academy in Caloocan built in 1956. The balcony’s balusters were taken from the Naval ancestral home in Nueva Ecija. Old wood sourced from pre-war houses in Binondo also came in handy.

These days, Espinosa is dreaming up a green warehouse, optimally designed for maximum sunlight and air utilization, along with a novel solution to a major commercial establishment’s dilemma with its malls’ skylights that generate excessive heat.

For the warehouse project, Espinosa proposes using strategically placed glass blocks on the walls, clerestory windows and bigger window systems varying in fixed and movable designs to give the two-story structure a lighter look and feel. He also recommends incorporating a passive cooling system similar to the Naval house, allowing cold air to come in to push the hot air out in order to create continuous air circulation. Certain corners where the roof and the walls meet also allow heat to escape from the warehouse. Generating cold air outside will require plants or a mini garden. All this, he says, will eventually lower energy cost in maintaining the structure when it is operational.

As for the malls, a thrilled Espinosa says the solution requires addressing the problem of the skylight serving as a heat trap. Because the project is still under negotiation, he says he cannot give details. But he guarantees that the solution, a simple, natural one at that, will allow for both maximum heat absorption and maximum sunlight illumination — plus an optimum view of the sky.

Still in his mid-40s, Espinosa has already successfully demonstrated his concept in one of the company’s Metro Manila malls. He hopes the company big bosses will finally give him the go-signal to build the prototype, arguing, “It will greatly minimize the financial electricity and maintenance costs they incur.”

Not to mention transforming downbeat customer mood and attitude in the same way that the Naval house has become a prime attraction in U.P. As Jimmuel Naval reveals, it has become a favorite party and hangout place for their colleagues and friends. And the neighborhood birds.

BANGUI’s windmills. [photo by Jaileen Jimeno]

But as the blades turn to face where the wind blows the strongest, one is reminded that the windmills aren’t there as whimsical adornments to the local landscape. They actually provide as much as 40 percent of the power needed by the entire province of Ilocos Norte, which has a population of 600,000.

The concept of expanding the use of alternative energy has been the battle cry of many politicians since the time of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, who was a loyal son of Ilocos. And in this era of heightened environmental consciousness and the global drive to develop and use “green” power, windmills are on top of the pile of choices. They do not cause pollution, require no fuel, do not create greenhouse gases, and produce no waste. Each kilowatt-hour produced by the Bangui wind farm is also seven centavos cheaper than fossil-fuel power. In 2006 alone, NorthWind Power Development Corporation, the Manila-based company that runs the farm, reported a P70-million annual savings passed on to consumers in the form of cheaper power rates.

Yet even today, there has been little development in this sector. The wind farm of Bangui, which began operating in 2005, is the first — and only — one of its kind in the country, as well as in Southeast Asia. There is no course on windmill technology in the Philippines. Two of the farm’s engineers had to be sent to Denmark for a three-week training to learn the mechanics of maintaining the windmills.

At least, though, it may be precisely this lack of information about windmills that motivates the curious and the picture-snappers to visit Bangui in droves. It also helps that NorthWind keeps an open-door policy for tourists who have loads of questions.

Standing 70 meters above ground and arranged in an arc spanning a total of nine kilometers straddling nine barangays, the windmills are difficult to miss, even by those who are several kilometers away. Tourists who flock to the beach initially unaware of the windmills’ presence see the structures from afar and then make it a point to include it in their itinerary.

“There are days we have as many as three groups visiting us,” says NorthWind plant manager Dino Tiatco. To the many laymen who keep on pestering them with questions, he and his staff of five are Windmills 101 teachers. Students visit the substation as part of their field trips. Participants of conventions held nearby drop by, and even balikbayans come to ogle at the windmills, take pictures, and ask questions.

WINDMILLS HAVE been around since ancient times. Historians claim it may have first come in use in what was then called Persia (modern-day Iran) as early as 500-900 A.D., mainly to grind grain or pump water. And that idea may have come from especially wise people who, a thousand years before windmills were used to grind grain, came to understand the concept of aerodynamic lift and used it in sailboats.

The windmills of today generate power by capturing the wind’s kinetic energy and converting it to electricity through the use of a generator. The northern part of the Philippines is considered a rich source of wind energy, since it is farthest from the equator, where wind is usually weak. Experts actually consult a wind atlas to determine which area has the most potential for a wind farm.

In Bangui, erecting the windmills was among the last and shortest step involved in the long process of the project. It began in 1999, when NorthWind was formed by Danish and Filipino engineers and investors. NorthWind set up meteorological towers in Bangui and collected data about wind behavior in the area. The group, led by Danish businessman Niels Jacobsen, then worked to secure loans and permits for the project. The wind farm was built under the build-operate-and-own scheme, via a $40-million loan from the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA).

Bangui’s windmills are an indicator of how small the world has become. The towers were assembled in Vietnam, the rotors in the United Kingdom, the nacelles — the part that holds the blades — in Denmark. Local workers constructed the bases.

NorthWind built two wharves to accommodate the landing of the gigantic windmill parts. But the waves of Bangui’s coastline were so rough it took NorthWind five months — from October 2004 to February 2005 — before it was finally able to offload all the equipment at the site. The project sailed smoothly from then on, as it took the company just two months to install the windmills and lay the cables connecting them to the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) grid. On May 8, 2005, NorthWind began delivering power to INEC. Thus began the operation of the Bangui wind farm.

The 15 windmills are assigned numbers, with number one the closest to the substation. “We’ve thought of giving them names,” says Tiatco, “but we agreed it would cause jealousy among us boys if we start using the names of our wives or girlfriends in referring to the windmills.”

The locals have been so pleased with their windmills and point them out proudly to tourists, both local and foreign. Some enterprising minds have also begun to sell t-shirts proclaiming Bangui’s power-producing pride and joy.

“In Europe, people are tired of seeing windmills because we see them everywhere,” says a British tourist. “But here, they talk about (them) with so much pride I just have to see them.”

This dissonance in appreciation can be gleaned from the fact that Europe is one region that is most extensive in its use of windmills. It is estimated that the region has 25,000 wind farms.

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) reports that in 1992, the global installed capacity of wind farms was at 2,500 megawatts. It rose to 40,000 megawatts in 2003, at an annual growth rate of 30 percent. In 2006, the figure had reached 48,000 megawatts. Almost a third of this capacity was installed in Europe alone — although wind power still makes up just three percent of Europe’s energy requirement.

IT SEEMS having many windmills could have some drawbacks. “I’d be driving with this nice view of the beach and I’d see a turbine here and a turbine there, destroying the view,” laments one European tourist here.

[photo by Jaileen Jimeno]

It may not only be the sheer number of windmills that could be considered by some as an eyesore. The size of windmill rotors has also grown by as much as 12 times its size the past three decades, giving them the dimensions of Godzilla. In the 1980s, most rotors in use had a diameter of 15 meters, able to generate 50 kilowatts. In 2003, there were rotors as long as 124 meters, generating as much as 5,000 kilowatts. Turbines built offshore have larger generators and rotors, says the EWEA. Despite their size, however, the wind turbines of today have very low mechanical noise.

While First-World residents may have grown tired of seeing windmills everywhere, tourists and Bangui locals relish the sight of this town’s 15 silent giants, each of which has a relatively modest 41-meter rotor. After all, they sit on a beach that was mostly desolate, save for a handful of houses on the road leading to the site. And when their arms rotate, that means additional power for Ilocos Norte; according to NorthWind, the windmills can produce as much as 74,482 megawatt hours per year.

“The residents like the windmills so much that the vendor in public market refused to make me pay for the hangers I was buying when I moved here,” says Tiatco, who is from Pampanga. To this day, he is sometimes still offered vegetables for free.

Such hospitality could perhaps be traced partly to the fact that NorthWind also provides employment, tapping locals for some work required for the upkeep of the substation and cables. The odd jobs it offers are obviously better alternatives to the backbreaking work of collecting pebbles at the seashore, a Bangui enterprise that fetches locals P50 for every sack.

Local real estate values are also up, as the coming of tourists has begun to generate business, albeit small-scale. The sprinkling of houses along the dirt road leading up to the windmills have bottles of soda ready for thirsty travelers. Another seemingly tentative entrepreneur has laid out two bunches of garlic on a fence with a small “for sale” sign.

“The windmills also made students want to study seriously,” says Tiatco. He adds with a chuckle, “They want to replace me.” While NorthWind has a policy of giving Bangui residents first crack at jobs available at the substation, the company has had to “import” engineers from other towns of Ilocos Norte, as well as from Isabela and Mindoro.

NorthWind collects an average of P30 million to P40 million every month from INEC. But as part of its social-responsibility program, the firm sets aside a centavo for every kilowatt hour it produces for the host community. It also offers a three-percent discount if INEC is able to pay within 10 days after receiving its bill.

THE WIND, however, does not always blow well for the windmills. During our hot summer months, power production is at its lowest because there is not enough wind to turn the blades. At zero to 3.5 meters per second wind speed, the windmills generate no electricity. But production peaks during stormy months, when the wind of storms up to signal number two are well absorbed by the blades.

The windmills shut down automatically, though, when the wind reaches the maximum of 25 meters per second or 90 kilometers per hour. Also, storms do not necessarily guarantee the turning of the blades. Last week, for example, the wind farm generated much activity during Typhoon Hanna. With the entry of Typhoon Ineng, however, Bangui found itself buffeted by two storms that sucked out air. “It created a vacuum in our area,” says Tiatco. “The windmills were not moving.”

This is one weakness that for now, rules out full dependence on non-fossil sources of power. Or at least on wind power. “Only God knows how much (energy) will be generated today or tomorrow,” admits Tiatco.

In the olden days, windmills had to be physically oriented so each faced the wind. Today computers do most of the work, requiring minimal human intervention (mostly when a cog malfunctions) to operate and maintain the windmills. The windmills of Bangui, like their European cousins, can on their own face the wind where it is strongest. The system is highly computerized that an engineer in Denmark, home base of the windmill manufacturer Vestas, can control the giants of Bangui.

“The blades are the most high-tech part of the wind turbines,” says Tiatco. The blades are made of wood, carbon fiber, and fiberglass, making them light in weight but strong enough to absorb wind power even during storms. The blades tilt to an awkward angle, looking much like a dead starfish, when something breaks down. Each tower has a four-meter wide base, wide enough to accommodate men and equipment and a ladder leading up to the tip of the windmill if human hands are needed to fix a mechanical problem.

Bangui folk also use the windmills as shelter from the sun as they wait for fishermen to arrive with their catch. For the more adventurous lovers wanting privacy, the windmills have also proven to be an effective buffer from prying eyes, since most parts of that particular stretch of the beach are deserted most of the time.

For now, the towers are all gleaming white. Some visitors in the past, however, had been unable to resist writing on the base of some of the windmills. Some of these have thus been painted over after visits by vandals, resulting in slightly different shades of white, as the original special paints used to inhibit rusting because of the salt in the air are not available locally. When the time comes for another fresh coat of paint, the chore would be like painting several buildings, and a contraption such like a crane to carry painters up would have to be used.

NorthWind has begun constructing five additional windmills in Bangui, to begin operating in June next year, upgrading the wind farm’s power generation to 33 megawatts. But this Ilocos Norte town may be losing its monopoly on wind-power use in the country. NorthWind has begun to gather wind data in nearby Cagayan province, for another possible wind farm there. Batanes is being eyed as yet another site. (A windmill project by the Philippine National Oil Company in Burgos, another Ilocos Norte town, was scheduled to be finished in 2003, but so far remains incomplete.)

In the meantime, Northwind is gearing up for more inquisitive tourists in Bangui, where it will soon open a visitor’s center, complete with a cafeteria, conference hall, and gift shop. But Tiatco, who has become adept at handling questions from the most peculiar to scientific, says he and his handful of engineers will still be around, ready with answers that, well, will not be blowing in the wind.

Bystanders check out the e-jeepney. [photo by Isa Lorenzo] VIEW an image gallery.

Motorists complain of jeepneys that hog the roads and stall traffic by suddenly stopping in the middle of a busy street to pick up passengers. Even worse are the jeepneys that belch thick, black, acrid fumes as they speed down the asphalt.

Some of this may soon change. An electric jeepney is being touted as the first phase of an eco-friendly-cities campaign spearheaded by Green and Renewable Independent Power Producers (GRIPP), a consortium of environment organization Greenpeace and nongovernmental organizations from Negros Occidental.

Three years ago, GRIPP thought of injecting a sustainable transport component into its Climate Friendly Cities program, which aims to try and develop an energy alternative to non-renewable resources such as oil. GRIPP founder and Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Athena Ballesteros says they chose to develop jeepney with an electric motor so that the country’s “most artistic, iconic, and flamboyant” mode of transportation would at least be less of a pollutant.

Jeepneys usually run on diesel, whose fumes are among the biggest contributors to air pollution and global warming. Diesel fumes are also irritating to the eyes, respiratory system, and the skin, according to health experts. Diesel inhalation, meanwhile, can cause a variety of ailments: headache, dizziness, drowsiness, incoordination, and euphoria. It can also lead to pneumatitis, which can leave one choking, coughing, wheezing; breathlessness, cyanosis, and fever are other possible effects of diesel inhalation. Diesel is a possible carcinogen as well.

Now comes the GRIPP jeepney, which is powered by 12 six-volt, deep-cycle batteries. Its electric motor is similar to that of a big electric fan, and it can travel for 120 kilometers on a single charge. The e-jeepney has no emissions, and the motor automatically shuts down when it comes to a stop, thus saving batteries.

The prototype can be plugged into an ordinary socket, but the plan is to have a biogas digester produce the electricity for e-jeepneys. Thus, aside from helping facilitate the permits, franchising, and comply with other government regulations in order to get the e-jeepney on the road, a city that wants to try the e-jeepney must also set aside land for a biogas digester, which will generate electricity from biodegradable waste, as well as commit to a dedicated waste collection system and waste segregation.

In this way, Ballesteros says, the digester will also help cities comply with the solid waste management law, which requires cities to segregate trash. Ninety percent of cities across the country have yet to follow this law, she says.

The project was set to be launched in GRIPP’s home province of Negros Occidental. But Ballesteros says that the city of Makati got wind of it and “(in) a matter of two weeks, it was able to produce the counterpart services and commitments.” Makati has 5,700 jeepneys, which ply an average 20 to 30 kilometers every day. The city is currently looking for a suitable location for the digester.

Heads turned as the e-jeepney purred along Ayala Ave. during a brief demonstration there recently. A friendly jeepney driver came over to chat during a red light. After admiring the e-jeepney, the first thing he wanted to know was what the e-jeepney ran on. The he asked how long the batteries would last.

But some driver’s groups are skeptic of the e-jeepney. Efren de Luna, president of the Philippine Confederation of Drivers and Operators-Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (PCDO-ACTO) doesn’t think the e-jeepney would be able to climb uphill or cover long distances. George San Mateo, spokesperson of the transport group Piston (United Nationwide Association of Drivers and Operators), says that he has heard the e-jeepney has yet to receive ISO certification, and is thus not yet eligible for registration.

Still, San Mateo admits that the rising diesel prices are eating into jeepney drivers’ profits. Each jeepney driver needs about 30 liters of diesel a day. A single liter of diesel, which can power a jeepney for up to eight kilometers, costs P33.50. An e-jeepney can travel the same distance on just P13.33 worth of electricity, based on power rates that will have drivers spending P150-P200 per charge.

Even though the e-jeepney was launched last July 4, it has yet to ply a regular route, as the Land Transportation Office still has to classify it. Once the e-jeepney is registered, a franchise will have to be granted before it can take to the road. Another potential roadblock to the e-jeepney’s widespread implementation is its cost: a hefty P550,000, or more than three times that of a regular jeepney. About 22 percent or P120,000 of the e-jeepney’s price tag is actually tax levied by the customs bureau, which says the e-jeepney is a luxury item.

“This is the problem if it’s not a government-led initiative,” says Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Jasper Inventor.

The prototype, with a fiberglass roof and aluminum body, was imported from China. The consortium has inked an agreement with the Motor Vehicles Parts Manufacturers Association of the Philippines to produce the e-jeepney locally. GRIPP hopes to have a Philippine-assembled prototype in six months. But parts such as the motor, batteries, and controller would still have to be imported, as there is yet no local technological know-how needed to produce these parts.

Greenpeace plans to set up a cooperative, where jeepney drivers and operators can apply for loans. The cooperative can also buy jeeps, subsidize these, act as operators, or even use a financing scheme.

DOEN, a Dutch foundation and entrepreneurial venture support organization, has given 300,000 euros for a three-year pilot program, which includes the first 50 jeepneys. GRIPP has three to five years to show the e-jeepney project is sustainable and viable.

This may depend partly on gaining the nod of jeepney drivers. Ballesteros says the Makati government has facilitated two consultations with drivers’ groups. “We want to involve them in the pilot testing and get their comments, and make revisions based on their comments on the e-jeeps,” she says.

GRIPP is collaborating with experts from the University of the Philippines to further study the technology being used, as well as the e-jeepney’s social acceptability and health and the environment impacts. Eventually, GRIPP hopes to replicate Nepal’s success with the electric safa tempo, a three-wheeled minibus. Nepal’s initial fleet of eight safa tempos grew to 600 in six years. But Ballesteros concedes, “In three years, we’ll be lucky if 10 percent of the jeepneys in Makati and Negros are electric.”

As for disciplining jeepney drivers, well, that’s another story.

With gasoline, “going up and down the road from Muñoz, when I get to Edsa, the fuel gauge starts flickering,” says one taxi driver. But since he switched to LPG, he says, the gauge has been less prone to spasms.

There’s another plus to the increased use of LPG by taxis, though: it’s supposed to be a more environmentally friendly fuel than gasoline. The Department of Energy (DOE) says that compared to regular gasoline, auto-LPG has around 20 percent less ozone forming potential, at least 15 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 80 percent less toxic emissions.

That’s partly why the government included auto-LPG in its alternative-fuels program, which it says it is undertaking not only to address environmental concerns, but also to attain energy self-sufficiency and security and contribute to the urbanization of rural areas. “Energy security means we have to enhance our uses of indigenous and other non-conventional or alternative uses of fuels,” says Mario Marasigan, director of DOE’s energy utilization and management bureau.

The primary aim, of course, is to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil. And because the transport sector has guzzled in increasing amounts of oil for the last decade — even as total local consumption has gone down by two percent from 2000 to 2006 — it is supposed to be the initial beneficiary of the government program.

Admittedly, rising oil prices rather than environmental worries are the main driving force in the mad dash for alternative fuels worldwide. The Philippine government’s motivation is no different, but green campaigners nevertheless see its effort as a step forward. Vehicle emissions, after all, account for up to 80 percent of air pollution in the Philippines. Around 2,000 people die each year in the country’s major cities, such as Metro Manila, Davao, and Cebu, due to the effects of air pollution, says a 2002 World Bank study. More than 9,000 Filipinos suffer from chronic bronchitis annually because of pollution.

Taxis line up for LPG. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

The transport sector is also one of the main sources of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming. A recent United Nations (UN) report says that transportation, including emissions from the production of transport fuels, is responsible for about one-fourth of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, and that this share is only getting bigger and bigger as time passes.

Yet some environmental groups such as Greenpeace cannot help but point out that biofuels used in transport represent a less direct solution to help reduce emission of greenhouse gases. “Biomass needs to be transformed to a liquid or gas form, which requires additional energy,” notes Greenpeace. The UN report in fact says that using biomass for combined heat and power rather than for transport fuel is the best option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade.

THE ENERGY department doesn’t deny this, but it’s obvious that its more pressing concern at the moment is saving pesos for the government rather than saving the planet. Indeed, the government hasn’t given up on its oil and gas explorations just yet, even as it tests the viability of auto-LPG for taxis and biofuels like bioethanol and biodiesel for other vehicles. Natural gas is also being tapped for public buses. Still, according to Marasigan, the government is also looking into solar, hydropower, wind, and geothermal resources.

Which is just as well, since the alternative-fuels program is not exactly going at race-car speed (although it is still progressing at a pace faster than a Senate hearing). One major challenge in developing biofuels has been enlisting the support of private investors, says Marasigan. He says that while the new biofuels law offers investors incentives such as zero specific tax, exemption from the value-added tax, and assistance from government financial institutions, “it doesn’t mean that this will be enough for them to invest in the country.”

Developing feedstock for the biofuels is another nagging worry, with questions about land use only complicating matters. Ironically, the one potential feedstock that seems to be attracting interest from investors also has some experts hollering caution.

Jatropha, a wild fruit bush, has been around for centuries but is not native to the Philippines. Its seeds are poisonous, but these also yield oil that can be used in diesel engines. The government is still trying to determine which variety would work best on local soil, but that has not stopped one of its corporations from entering into multibillion-peso agreements involving jatropha.

This early, Philippine National Oil Company Alternative Fuels Corporation (PNOC-AFC) has already signed a memorandum of agreement with a Korean firm for a $210-million jatropha plantation and biorefinery. It has also inked a deal with the Land Bank of the Philippines to allocate P10 billion for the cultivation and propagation of the supposed wonder plant. The PNOC-AFC has even given P20 million in financial assistance to Bukidnon to propagate jatropha.

The converted LPG engine can be found in the trunk of a taxi. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

But a recent study by agriculture professors from the University of the Philippines in Los Baños advises those who have become giddy over jatropha to study the facts first. According to the academics, jatropha becomes a viable source of biodiesel only if diesel is retailed at P40 per liter; if the crop has a high fruit yield of 36,000 kg per hectare; if the variety has a high rate of oil extraction (at least 34 percent); and if byproducts are included and provide 50-percent additional income from the oil revenue.

They say, though, that no jatropha variety grown in the Philippines yields 34-percent oil; current laboratory oil extraction rates range from 28 to 32 percent. At a low-yield level of 12,000 kg per hectare, jatropha becomes profitable for farmers growing it if the diesel price increases to about P140 per liter at a 30-percent rate of oil extraction (revenue from oil alone). This estimate excludes processing and marketing costs. Current estimates put the processing cost at P12 per liter, which means biodiesel from jatropha could actually cost P152 per liter.

The academics also say that there is also a five-year wait for the jatropha crop to reach optimum fruiting. The professors wonder whether the processing plants and the technological know-how to process raw oil into biodiesel and develop byproducts would be ready by this time.

WHAT IS not widely known, however, is that the diesel being sold locally already has some biofuel content. It’s actually a biodiesel blend that has one percent of coconut methyl ester (CME), which is sourced locally. Marasigan says that the country was able to produce 110 million liters of CME last year — more than enough for the 70 million liters needed for an annual supply of the biodiesel blend.

	SOME gasoline stations now sell bioethanol, which has a ten-percent ethanol blend. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

Coconut oil is used to produce CME. Cocodiesel lowers the emission of nitrous oxide and sulfur oxide, which are the main contributors to smog. It also promotes more efficient combustion and less engine vibration, and is supposed to improve fuel economy by as much as 20 percent.

A survey conducted by the energy department showed improved engine emissions and overall performance, as well as reported increase in mileage. There were some negative comments in the survey, but the DOE says these were due to factors other than CME.

The one-percent CME in diesel was mandated to be in use nationwide by last April by the Biofuels Act of 2006, which was signed into law in January. In 2009, the CME content may go up to a minimum of two percent.

The biofuels law also mandates the use of at least a five-percent bioethanol blended into gasoline by 2009. After two years, the National Biofuels Board should determine the feasibility of using bioethanol, after which it can recommend a minimum 10-percent bioethanol blend.

Some oil companies are already offering gasoline with as much as 10-percent bioethanol blend. But unlike CME, the ethanol used by these companies is imported, since the Philippines has yet to have the capability to produce this. While the country’s first bioethanol plant is already being built in Negros Occidental, it is not scheduled to be in operation until next year. By 2009, 10 bioethanol plants will be needed to produce the country’s ethanol needs, but only three of these (including the Negros plant) are in the pipeline.

Industry statistics show that a total of some 26 million liters of ethanol-blended gasoline were sold nationwide last year. A liter of the blend is usually about P7 cheaper than the same amount of unleaded gasoline, but indications are those who opt for the former know it is the greener choice.

Most likely, locally produced ethanol will come from sugarcane. As it is, the Department of Agriculture has set aside 60,250 hectares for sugarcane that will eventually be used to produce 274 million liters of bioethanol. The government calculates that the 2009 bioethanol requirement will be 50 million liters less that amount.

Sugarcane ethanol can help reduce greenhouse gases, says Greenpeace. It also says sugarcane ethanol has a “positive energy balance,” which means that the end product generates more energy than required from its production. When sugarcane is used as a raw material for ethanol production, 8.3 units of energy is delivered for every unit of fossil fuel spent in production.

GLOBALLY, THE leader in sugarcane ethanol production is Brazil, which has a 30-year-old biofuel program. Interestingly, the Philippines began exploring the viability of biofuels about the same time as Brazil — only to drop the effort in the mid-1980s “due in part to domestic political turmoil, and in part to stable world oil prices,” say academics Raymond Tan and Alvin Culaba. At the time, the country was looking at two types of fuel: bioethanol, derived from sugarcane and used in a gasoline blend called alcogas, and biodiesel, derived from coconut oil and called cocodiesel. Two decades later, the Philippines is trying to pick up where it left off.

During the mid-1980s, almost all the cars sold in Brazil — which was apparently more serious about biofuels than any other country on the planet — ran exclusively on ethanol. Trouble came in early 1990s, however, when low oil prices led the government to remove subsidies on ethanol. High sugar prices also discouraged production. This led car manufacturers to find a cheap way for a car to burn both ethanol and gasoline. In 2003, the first flexifuel car was introduced in Brazil. Today 85 percent of the cars sold there are flexifuel.

VEHICLE emissions are responsible for about one-fourth of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. [photo by Isa Lorenzo]

Yet for all of Brazil’s success with ethanol, it is hardly the perfect model for biofuel development, says Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Jasper Inventor. “We certainly believe that it has reached a point where it’s not sustainable anymore,” he says. “It’s reached a point where you’re cutting forests in the Amazon (to grow sugarcane), where there’s actually some form of modern-day slave labor in plantations.”

It’s not certain how similar efforts elsewhere will end up. In the United States, where alternative fuels regained popularity some seven years ago, corn is the feedstock of choice for biofuel, even if experts say it is less “efficient” than sugarcane. The U. S. Congress has mandated that 7.5 billion gallons (28 billion liters) of the country’s fuel should come from ethanol or biodiesel by 2010. That’s equal to less than one percent of the annual U.S. fuel consumption. The United States, home of the gas-chugalugging SUVs and Inconvenient Truth Teller Al Gore, ranks first worldwide in terms of annual volume of greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts say that even if the entire U.S. corn and soybean corps were turned into biofuel, it would replace just 12 percent of the country’s yearly gasoline consumption and six percent of its diesel consumption. In the meantime, U.S. scientists are looking for ways to improve the energy balance and greenhouse benefits of corn ethanol by creating a “closed-loop system,” where cow manure would be used as biogas to create biofuel.

As for the Philippines (which ranks 38 among the top 50 greenhouse gas emitting countries), Marasigan says that the government will explore other types of fuel such as the extraction of methane from solid waste — aside from coal gasification and coal-bed methane. But as far as public buses are concerned, it’s placing its bet on compressed natural gas (CNG) that will see bus operators shelling out half the amount they are now spending for diesel. Natural gas is lead-free, produces practically no sulfur oxides or particulates and up to 30 percent less carbon dioxide than diesel.

The government’s compressed natural gas plan, however, is stretched out for completion in seven years, although anytime now 200 CNG-fed buses (with 185 already allotted to particular bus firms) will be arriving from abroad. Shell is also committed to selling CNG by the end of this month, albeit with just four stations offering this. (There is a move as well by the Philippine LPG Bus and Taxi Co. Inc. to pilot-test next month 10 buses running on LPG. The company plans to import up to 200 buses.)

Marasigan says that the near future of biofuels includes cellulosic technology, which produces energy from sustainable agricultural and forestry wastes. The DOE, he says, needs to keep on studying alternative fuels for the transport sector so that the department can achieve its goal of 60-percent energy security for the country by 2010. As Marasigan sees it, the bottom-line definition of energy security is being in a situation in which “whatever happens internationally, the country will have an ample supply of energy.”

At present, he says, the Philippines has already achieved energy security of more than 55 percent. Marasigan thinks achieving 100-percent energy security is improbable “unless we produce our own crude oil in (a) big quantity.”

Perish that un-green thought.

We start with energy, with our discussions including a look at the law that privatized the local power industry. But we take up the issue of energy with an eye mainly on its impact on the environment, and with the thinking that — to paraphrase the International Energy Agency (IEA) — since power has been part of many environmental problems, including climate change, then it must be part of the solution. Some of the stories we have lined up thus explore renewable energy resources like wind power, as well as what environmentalists like to describe as more “efficient” uses of energy by corporations and by individuals.

We then move on to scrutinize how else we have managed to muck up our environment (and consequently have jeopardized our health). Obviously it’s not going to be a very pretty picture that we will be presenting, but for all we know, it’s a picture that might actually prompt some people to start checking if they have ecologically questionable habits of their own, or have them consider joining groups or activities that promote green practices. In any case, we promise to have some good news, if only to show that while we may be our (and the environment’s) own poison, we are also our own antidote.

Here’s a bit of early good news: After years of acting as if its member countries were unaffected by climate change, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has finally begun talking about the issue and has put it among the top items in its agenda for its upcoming summit in Singapore in November.

Then again, we really don’t have to wait for those in power to act for change to happen (although that would obviously help a lot). Even physicist Amory B. Lovins, cofounder and chairperson of the U.S.-based environmental “think and do tank” Rocky Mountain Institute, says there is no dearth in the things an ordinary person can do to promote energy efficiency that can help nurse the earth back to health.

According to Newsweek, Lovins himself lives “in a house that can run on the same amount of energy as a conventional light bulb.” Ever the optimist, he also told the international newsmagazine recently, “I think we will look back in a few decades and wonder what all the oil fuss was about because…we will have made this product obsolete. Oil is going to become, and has already become, uncompetitive, even at low prices, before it becomes unavailable even at high prices. So we will leave it on the ground. It’s very good for holding up the ground, but it won’t be worth extracting.”