Isabela bioethanol plant lays off 1,200 workers

SAN MARIANO, Philippines—About 1,200 workers of a bioethanol producer in San Mariano town, Isabela province, will be laid off starting next month as the harvest season for sugarcane ends in Isabela province.

“We want to be clear. They are seasonal workers and the company would be losing money if it continues to give them salaries for doing nothing,” said Greg Garcia, corporate affairs manager and administrative officer of the Green Future Innovations Inc. (GFII) in Santa Filomena village here.

The firm would let go of farm and utility workers and security guards starting July 12, but would rehire workers who pass its screening process once more by October, the start of the next season, Garcia said.

The firm has 378 regular workers and 1,198 seasonal workers, according to Garcia.

In its website, GFII said it has been maintaining sugarcane growing contracts with 4,000 farm families in Isabela.

On July 18, at least 54 truck drivers would also be laid off, said Diony Yadao, president of the farmers’ group, Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon iti Isabela (Dagami-Isabela).

But the periodic hiring and firing has angered farmers’ groups in the province, Yadao said, because retrenching workers for part of every year has not helped the local economy.

Yadao said the groups have lobbied the company to assure “security of tenure” for its workers in Isabela.

“Where will these families get money to sustain their families’ daily need once they are retrenched? The company must be humane and spend for its workers for the whole year,” he said.

Vice Mayor Edgar Go said most of the retrenched workers came from this town.

“It is sad to know that they even retrench those residents from San Mariano first. The company must be fair and must [base the firing on] the track record of workers,” he said.

GFII has targeted an annual average production of 54 million liters of ethanol.

When it began operating in 2012, the company projected that 700,000 tons of sugarcane feedstock (worth P1.6 billion) would provide income to about 20,000 farmers through sugarcane growing contracts covering 11,000 hectares.

The GFII operates in partnership with Ecofuel Development Corp., Itochu Corp., JGC Corp., Philippine Bioethanol and Energy Investments Corp. and GCO Taiwan Holding Company.