SENIOR Provincial Agriculturist Elizabeth Suyod of the Provincial Veterinarian Office (PVO) found herself in a difficult situation in implementing the provincial ordinance banning the entries of genetically modified organisms (GMO). Suyod cited among other things like the P200,000 allotted budget in implementing the ordinance which, according to her, the amount cannot even cover for the expenses of posters and billboards.”

SCIENTISTS are eyeing the commercial release of Golden Rice by 2011 that will boost the government’s effort to combat malnutrition and reduce the chronic micronutrient deficiency suffered by millions of children and pregnant women. The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has been working double time to secure approval for the genetically improved rice variety fortified with vitamin A, iron and zinc, touted as the ultimate solution to the problem of malnutrition being experienced by at least 2 billion people worldwide.

Environmentalists have won a legal skirmish in their campaign to stop the propagation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Last week Branch 101 of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court granted an application filed by Greenpeace and other groups for a temporary restraining order against the genetically modified rice Bayer LL62. [...] The injunction petition, which Greenpeace filed August 23, questions the lack of public voice and public consultation on GMO approvals by DA and BPI, particularly in the case of Bayer LL62’s application.

”Greenpeace believes that the pending application of a genetically-altered rice to be used for food, feed, and processing in our country is a very serious issue of public concern,” said Daniel Ocampo, the environment group’s genetic engineering campaigner in Southeast Asia. ”If the application is approved, the entry of GMO rice in our country will irrevocably alter the future of our most important staple food.”

A court has ordered a temporary hold on an application to bring genetically modified rice into the Philippines, pending a study of possible health and environment hazards, court documents and activists said Friday. A regional trial court in suburban Quezon City issued the temporary restraining order after the environmental group Greenpeace asked it to stop Bayer Philippines Inc., the local affiliate of German pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer, from introducing the LL62 rice variety.

THE Provincial Government of Negros Occidental has strongly pushed for the banning of the entry of Genetically Modified Organisms to protect the biodiversity and sustain the status of Negros as organic food island. This is being strengthened through Provincial Ordinance No. 7 which institutes stringent measures towards the protection of biodiversity and the attainment of the status of the province as organic food island by banning the entry, importation, introduction, planting, growing, selling and trading of GM plants and animals within the territorial jurisdiction with penalties for violations.

Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has asked the government to recall and stop the selling of genetically-enhanced rice products from the US that pose health risks to humans and to the environment. Rosales, in a letter sent to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last February 9, asked Arroyo to take back from the supermarkets the Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice, which is being distributed by Purefeeds Inc.”We believe that we should strongly oppose any experiment or attempt to use genetically engineered foods that are not safe or good to the environment. We should feed our people with food that are produced through natural means,” Rosales said.

The Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed Wednesday a landmark legislation that bans the entry of genetically modified plants and animals in the province and imposes penalties for its violation. Provincial Ordinance No. 07, Series of 2007, or ”The Safeguard Against Living Genetically-Modified Organisms”, was sponsored by Board Member Adolfo Mangao Sr., chairman of the SP Committee on Agriculture. The ordinance helps bring Negros Island a step closer to its goal of becoming the organic food bowl of Asia, Patrick Belisario, executive director of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation Inc., said yesterday. In Aug. 24, 2005, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon and Oriental Negros Gov. George Arnaiz signed a memorandum of agreement committing to 10 percent organic production islandwide by the year 2010 and to the banning of GMOs.

An environmental group has urged the government to disapprove the pending application of Bayer Crop Science, a foreign biotech firm, for the importation and release in the local market of genetically engineered rice (GE rice). Sister Aida Velasquez, coordinator of the Lingkod Tao-Kalikasan (LTK), said that the government, in particular the Bureau of Plant and Industry under the Department of Agriculture (DA), should not allow the entry of the Bayer-developed genetically engineered LLRICE 62 because it may pose serious health and environmental risks to the country.

The Negros Organic Agriculture Movement has expressed support to the move of the provincial government to ban genetically modified organisms in Negros Occidental. In its position paper signed by its 17 members, NOAM said that the banning of GMOs in the province is indispensable in attaining the goal of making Negros the ”Organic Food Bowl in Asia.” The group’s move came after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed in the first reading the ordinance that will prohibit the entry of GMO products in Negros Occidental.

April 11, 2007 is a heartbeat away when the provincial government holds a second public hearing on the anti-GMO ordinance to protect the island’s emerging organic food industry. Those who will attend should heed a recent TIME article on how American organic farmers were double-crossed when genetically modified (GM) corn cross-pollinated their cattle feed. Their experience should ring warning bells in Negros Island, the organic food bowl of Asia.