Chemrez is one of two companies licensed and accredited by the Philippine Department of Energy (DOE) to produce coco biodiesel in the country. The other is Senbel Sine Chemicals that has yet to complete its production facilities.

As part of the ceremonies, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo inspected the P650-million (US$11.7-million) biodiesel plant, and appeared with Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla at the launching of the product at the Flying V station .

The Chemrez plant currently can produce 15 million liters (4 million gallons US) of fuel per year. A planned expansion, targeted for completion by 1Q 2006, will quadruple that capacity to 60 million liters (16 million gallons). A second expansion phase, to be completed in 2008, will triple that to 180 million liters (48 million gallons) per year.

In February 2004, the President ordered all government vehicles to use a one-percent biodiesel blend in their diesel vehicles.

A nationwide rollout of one- to five-percent coco-biodiesel blends—to be started in 2006 and completed by 2014—is expected to decrease the country’s dependence on imported fuel by three percent.

President Macapagal-Arroyo is making a push for conservation as well as for the development of alternative fuels.

Strict energy conservation is now a matter of national survival.

—Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye

In an echo of Jimmy Carter’s White House in the US, lights are dimmed and all cooling systems are turned off early in the Malacañang complex. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered all departments and agencies to ensure that stringent energy conservation measures are fully implemented.

In various forums, the President continues to underscore the urgency of strict energy conservation as a national effort to lessen the impact of steep oil prices all around—the private and government sectors.