All GMOs in RP market safe: DA biotech chief

BACOLOD CITY, June 5 (PNA) – The chief biotechnology expert of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Tuesday that all genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) or products marketed in the Philippines have been declared safe.

Dr. Saturnina Halos, chairperson of the Biotech Advisory Team of the DA, said the government’s policies ensure the safety of GMOs and GM (genetically modified) products being used in the country.

“Our biosafety policy for GM crops is adequate and is seen as a model for developing countries,” said Halos, who was among the speakers at the UP Los Baños Alumni Association-Negros Occidental Chapter “Seminar on Biotechnology and Biosafety” here.

All the GM crops approved by the DA are safe for people, livestock and the environment, she stressed.

Halos said the ban on GMOs in Negros Occidental actually violates the right of Negrenses to use the genetic modification technology.

Quoting former Commission on Human Rights chairperson Purificacion Quisumbing, Halos noted that it is “against the basic human right to be deprived of a good technology such as modern biotechnology.”

She said that Negros Occidental needs to be flexible and should look at the whole picture when it comes to GMO.

“The way I see it, at this stage you should (look at the whole picture). You can allow some farmers (to go organic) but for everyone, we may lose our competitiveness,” the DA expert said.

Halos said the DA does not support the GMO ban in Negros Occidental because the national policy emphasizes product safety.

“If it is safe, then it is okay. The GMOs that we allow in the Philippine market have been declared to be safe,” she said.

In her presentation, Halos said that prohibiting GMO and GM products in the province also means a ban on beer, detergents, cotton clothes, some fruit juices, cheese, gelatin, among others, as these contain or were made with GM enzyme.

Halos’ take on the GMO ban in Negros Occidental drew a reaction from Third District Board Member Patrick Lacson who said he found her sarcastic.

The expert apologized to Lacson, saying she didn’t mean to be so.

Lacson said that although he was not yet a member of the Provincial Board when the GMO ban ordinance was passed, he knew that it was unanimously approved by the Board in the province’s bid to be the “Organic Bowl of Asia.”

Halos said that economic changes have already taken place and that producers of organic products are losing their market.

“Maybe when they adopted that ordinance, organic products were well-priced. Now the yuppies who are the consumers of organic products are gone. They lost their jobs, so what is your market?” she said.

Dr. Randy Hautea, global coordinator and Southeast Asia director of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, said that like in other countries, there can also be co-existence of biotechnology crops with conventional crops and organic farming in the Philippines.

It is about the production and marketing of crops approved for use, not about product or crop safety, he said.