ABS-CBNNews

Gas-guzzling, smoke-belching Philippine public transport icon the jeepney is going green.

The first electronic jeepney was unveiled Wednesday in the Makati financial district, where it will be test driven for the next three months in a project environmentalists said could revolutionize public transport in the country.

Already 50 have been ordered for the island of Negros.

The P550,000 (US$11,956) electric jeepney was built by Solar Electric Co. (Solarco) and costs around the same as the conventional model.

Solarco president Robert Puckett said the electric jeepney would seat 10 to 12 passengers comfortably and cost P150 a day to run compared with around P800-P900 a day using diesel.

The truck-based mini-buses popularly known as jeepneys are among the biggest polluters on Manila’s roads and there are some 400,000 of them in the capital.

“Every day tens of thousands of commuters pack into the backs of jeepneys breathing in toxic fumes,” Puckett said.

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Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Oakwood mutiny leader Antonio Trillanes IV has won a seat in the Senate, making history as the country’s first former military officer to be elected senator while detained on coup d’etat charges.

Trillanes, a candidate of the Genuine Opposition (GO), sealed his victory Thursday with the returns from Surigao del Norte province. He is to be proclaimed the 11th in the winning circle of 12 senators Friday morning by the Commission on Elections sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBC).

“We believe it is already mathematically impossible to overcome the lead of Trillanes, in view of which the board has decided to have a partial proclamation again in [his] favor,” Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos Sr. said before adjourning the NBC session at noon Thursday.

Abalos’ announcement — which he made after reading the ballot tally from Surigao del Norte, which accounted for 207,361 votes — was greeted with modest applause from the election lawyers present. Trillanes’ lawyer, Reynaldo Robles, contained his jubilation with a smile.

Trillanes actually did not fare well in the province, with only 44,604 votes that put him at No. 16.

But his hold on No. 11 in the overall tally remained firm, leading Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III of GO and Juan Miguel Zubiri of Team Unity (TU) by 272,670 votes and 384,231 votes, respectively.

Overjoyed

“Tuwang-tuwa kami (We’re overjoyed),” Robles told reporters.

Robles said he would try to “work it out” for the 35-year-old former Navy lieutenant to leave his detention cell in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, for the proclamation.

“He said it was OK with him not to attend his own proclamation. But I told him he owed it to the public to [be there], as a way of thanking and honoring all those who voted for him,” Robles said.

The lawyer said Trillanes had become “anxious” over the proclamation of the other winning senatorial candidates. “We felt that he should have been proclaimed also despite the uncanvassed returns. It was mathematically possible, but highly improbable, for the other candidates to overtake him.”

The Comelec proclaimed last week the first 10 winners in the senatorial race, including six GO candidates, ensuring the opposition’s continuing dominance of the Senate.

Robles said that after the Surigao del Norte certificate of canvass was tabulated, he was actually preparing to argue that Trillanes should now be proclaimed.

He said he could only heave a sigh of relief when Abalos made the announcement.

“He is the first senator to be elected while in detention, as far as I know,” Robles said of his client. “I think my information’s pretty accurate.”

Fight for last spot

With Trillanes’ impending proclamation, the battle will focus on the fight between Pimentel and Zubiri for the last spot.

The latest Comelec tally showed Pimentel still leading Zubiri by 111,561 votes. Contrary to TU expectations, the votes from Surigao del Norte failed to dislodge Pimentel from the 12th spot.

Zubiri garnered a total of 56,011 votes compared to Pimentel’s 56,165 votes.

“We are thankful that the canvassing is finally over for Trillanes. Of course, we will not leave Koko (Pimentel). We will continue to support him and make sure that the right votes will be counted,” Robles said.

Unaccounted votes from Maguindanao and several towns in Basilan, Bogo in Cebu and Biñan in Laguna were, according to Abalos, still pegged at less than 500,000, which could still alter the rankings of Pimentel and Zubiri.

The fight for the 12th spot could be extended should the Comelec en banc decide to declare a failure of elections and hold special polls in Maguindanao, where massive electoral fraud is said to have occurred.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled on Friday after Trillanes’ proclamation.

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GMANews

Makati City will host on July 4 a test run of the electric jeepneys, the first in Metro Manila, but second only in the entire country, after Bacolod City took the lead last June 14 by testing two electric jeepneys.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay said the “e-jeepneys” will be previewed before Binay and other city officials and representatives from environmental groups and the private sector on at the Ayala Center.

Binay said the e-jeepneys will ply the Central Business District (CBD) starting this month on a test run basis, in coordination with representatives of jeepney drivers and operators, who will be considered as stakeholders of the project.

Binay said Makati would lease two e-jeepneys from Green Renewable Independent Power Producer (GRIPP), the main proponent of test run, which is part of its Climate Friendly Cities (CFC) project.

“If the test runs show that the project is feasible, additional units will be leased by the city,” Binay said.

Makati will also start promoting e-jeepneys all over Metro Manila, with the help of GRIPP and its other partners, namely Greenpeace and Solar Electric Co. (SolarCo).

“This project is an innovative way of addressing two major concerns of cities, namely pollution and waste reduction. Makati is very keen on this project considering the volume of vehicle that we have in our CBD and the organic waste generated by households and commercial establishments here” Binay said.

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Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — The jeepney’s electric-powered version will soon be weaving through the streets of Bacolod City to pick up passengers.

A multisectoral group is importing two electric jeepneys (E-jeeps) from China this month in an effort to introduce a low-carbon but sustainable transport system in the city.

Once the E-jeep becomes viable, more of them will be shipped to Bacolod for commercial operations. Who knows, this may be replicated in other cities across the country.

But the E-jeep is just the icing on the cake. The real magic lies in the fact that the jeep will be running on electricity produced by a renewable energy power plant from the city’s market and household wastes.

Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc. (GRIPP) conceived of the 1-million euro (P61.88-million) project — the first in Southeast Asia — to further cement Negros Occidental’s move to go for clean energy five years ago.

GRIPP is the same network of civil society groups, business sector, local government units and green groups that led Negros’ campaign to foil the construction of coal plants in the province and stay clean.

Logical choice

The province gets its power mainly from geothermal energy. That’s why Bacolod is the most logical choice for the pilot-testing.

“The concept grew out of a desire to complete the clean energy campaign for Negros. We thought it fitting to complete that by adding a transport component,” Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros, founding member of GRIPP, said.

The idea, eventually, is to have a fleet of 50 E-jeeps plying the secondary routes, or those streets not covered by the 3,000 to 3,500 locally-made jeepneys.

After getting 300,000 euros (P18.56 million) for the entire fleet from the Dutch institution Doen, GRIPP ordered two E-jeeps worth 6,000 euros (P371,280) each from Langqing Electric Vehicle Co. Ltd. in Guangzhou.

It plans to run six E-jeeps for the initial tests from three to six months beginning July. Once it has a clear idea how well the operation runs, GRIPP will go into full commercial operations by July next year.

“Our dream is that in three to five years, they can increase the fleet from six to 50, and eventually, 100, so we can break 10 percent of the market,” said Ballesteros, also Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner. Greenpeace is part of GRIPP.

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