Consultation over anti-GMO ordinance held
BACOLOD CITY -- Sangguniang Panglungsod Member Alex Paglomutan, chair of the committee on agriculture, recently took cognizance the appeal for moratorium on the implementation of City Ordinance No. 485 series of 2009 that adheres for the banning and prohibition of the entry of genetically modified organism (GMO's) in the city of Bacolod.
Paglomutan called a public consultation last Monday which was attended by different sectors including the hog and poultry raisers and environmental groups like Greenpeace International who manifested their opposition to the entrance of GMOs in the city of Bacolod and province of Negros Occidental.
During the public consultation, Negros Occidental Hog Raisers Association President Albert Lim Jr. presented his letter to Paglomutan as to the data of the number of hogs slaughtered in Negros Occidental.
He also presented that more than 12 million chickens were slaughtered in 2008 and this indicates that they are requiring food security in the entire province of Negros Occidental.
"The province of Negros Occidental does not produce enough supply of corn and does not meet the requirements of the poultry and hog raisers and so we buy corn outside our province like Mindanao and also in Iloilo," Lim said.
He cited that 90 percent of the corn they acquired are GMOs.
He also claimed during the consultation that they do not want to implement the ordinance because the city and provincial government has no laboratory facilities to test these products whether it has GMO or not.
He also insisted that there is not enough trained personnel to determine whether the corn they buy are covered by the GMO substance.
On the other hand, Sangguniang Panglungsod Member Jocelle Batapa-Sigue clarified that the public consultation was done after the group of Lim raised their concern before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan who also prohibited the entry of GMO in the province of Negros Occidental.
Batapa-Sigue was informed by the group of hog raisers that the provincial government ad hoc committee had not yet come out with a final report for the suspension or moratorium of said ordinance.
Lim said that he was dismayed because he feels the ad hoc committee is not doing its job to resolve the matter.
Meanwhile, Department of Agriculture Regional Director Larry Nacionales who was invited as resource speaker confirmed that the usage of Bt corns or Bio-technology products was already introduced by the national government in 2002.
Nacionales said that last year 2008, a total of 305,980 hectares all over the country was utilized for the planting of Bt corns. He expected that this year, almost 500,000 hectares will be utilized for this Bt corn variety. He said that out of 10 outstanding commodities in Western Visayas that provide economic opportunities, only livestock and corn are important industry.
Nacionales also said that Negros Occidental cannot meet the demands of the hog and poultry raisers in order that this industry will survive.