Hi everyone,
I will be the person responsible with the BitEnergi corporation and project in the Philippines and I will do my best to serve the interest of all investors.
There was a three hours preliminary meeting with a lawyer in the Philippines in order to establish the required things to start an agri-business corporation. One of the important points of the discussion was pertaining to the legality of owning the trees by the investors. The answer was that any person can legally own the trees by having a contract with the corporation. One of the requirements for harvesting the trees is to have a Timber License Agreement with the government which is not hard to get. DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) will issue this Agreement.
I still need to have a longer meeting with the lawyer and the accountant to discuss it more.
My visit to the Office of Provincial Agriculturist in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines, brought me face to face with a wonderful person: Engr. Antonio Maluto, Head of Nursery of the office.
I will quote his words regarding the growing of the mahogany trees:
"As an employee of the Philippines government, i feel that one of my duties is to sustain any environmentally friendly projects that would be established in the Philippines. I will make sure that there will be enough Mahogany seedlings provided for this venture and help in finding a good silviculture engineer in order to provide technical support for the eco-friendly endeavour."
I will attach his picture where he is holding a Swietenia Macrophylla seedling, probably one of the ones that will be planted on our pilot plantation.
I would like to describe him a little:
He is one of the government employees in the Philippines that show exactly what the meaning of duty is. This kind of people will almost jump out of their chairs in order to serve you, something that I did not see in European countries. Besides that, I have been offered coffee and biscuits without even him to know what I came in the office for. He is not the only employee that offered me food, it is one of their strong traditions to give food to a guest.
There will be updates regarding BitEnergi soon. Keep in touch, everyone !
