FPRDI, JG Casus ink pact on bamboo treatment for housing project
November 28, 2011
The Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) and the private company JG Casus Corporation (JGCC) recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the preservative treatment of bamboo poles that will be used in the mass production of low-cost houses.
Architect Jesus G. Casus, President of JGCC and the company’s representative during the MOA signing, developed the construction method called “Casus Low Cost Bamboo-Reinforced Concrete Technology” which will substitute bamboo for reinforced steel bars commonly used in construction today. FPRDI, meanwhile, will provide the technical assistance on the preservation of bamboo poles to prevent fungal and insect attack. For several decades now, the Institute has been an authority in the preservative treatment of wood, bamboo, rattan, and other non-timber forest products.
The signing, which transpired last 08 November 2011, was witnessed by Mr. Voltaire Anthony Villarosa, President of Unimat Development Corporation, the project developer; For. Felix B. Tamolang, FPRDI Deputy Director; For. Robert A. Natividad, Chief of FPRDI’s Technology Innovation Division; and For. Catalino Pabuayon of the Institute’s Material Science Division.
With initial construction site in Bani, Pangasinan, the project aims to build about 165,000 houses using the bamboo-reinforced concrete technology throughout the country. ### (Apple Jean C. Martin, November 14, 2011)
