It is sickening to note that there are some Filipino businessmen who, just to make a fast buck, would expose our homes and lives most especially to the dangers of unsafe liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders.
And not only this. A recent raid by the National Bureau of Investigation of the facilities of Republic Gas Corp. (Regasco) and Omni Gas Corp. has shown that LPG tanks refilled by unauthorized facilities are usually underweight by as much as 85 percent of the authorized weight. These two companies are said to be engaged in the unauthorized refilling, sale and distribution of LPG bearing other popular LPG brands.
These illegally refilled LPGs were being distributed to homemakers who were led to believe that the LPGs come from the company whose name appears on the cylinder
The penny-pinching homemaker, who wants to save a few bucks, has been the unsuspecting victim of these illegal LPG refillers. Unknown to this homemaker, a difference of a few pesos could save their homes and their lives.
A recent report from the NBI Anti-Organized Crime Task Force showed that the incidence of illegal LPG cylinder-related accidents has increased over the past years. Records from the fire safety enforcement division of the Department of Interior and Local Government have revealed as much as 206 incidents last year due to unsafe LPG tanks.
For the first three months of 2002 alone, 49 fires were traced to the explosion of such LPG cylinders.
Investigations have shown that LPG cylinders sold by unauthorized refillers usually do not have the safety features which the authorized products have, such as the safety seal, not to mention the use of dilapidated and rusty tanks.
While illegally refilled tanks may sell for P50 less than the authorized ones, the latter may be cheaper if you think about the underweighing. The risk to life and property, however, is immeasurable.
In fact, because of the seriousness of this matter, the Department of Energy is asking Congress to give it more muscle in order to curb unscrupulous trade practices and develop quality standards for the LPG industry. Energy Secretary Vince Perez has stressed that LPG, being a basic commodity, should adhere to the highest safety standard and that government cannot compromise the welfare of society, which is none-negotiable.
Maybe to those engaged in this business, underfilling LPG tanks, this is just another way of making money. But for those who manage the family budget, this is a cruel if not sick joke. It shows an utter lack of conscience on the part of those who play around with the Filipino homemaker’s desire to stretch the family budget.
While the government, through the DOE and the NBI, has began to show some teeth in the campaign against illegally-refilled LPG cylinders, a lot more needs to be done. Energy Secretary Vince Perez, the NBI operatives, and the mayors of the localities where these illegal refillers operate, should padlock these facilities for good.
Imported chicken leg quarters from the United States are now being sold for P65 to P67 per kilo as against locally raised and dressed chicken which sell for P80 a kilo. While the price difference may be considerable, Filipinos should think really hard. Why are they so cheap? What’s the catch?
When Senator Edgardo Angara was secretary of the Department of Agriculture, he made it his personal crusade to stop the rising importation of leg quarters more popularly known as drumsticks from the US following reports that some of these were intended for Russia but were rejected there and then diverted to the Philippines.
And he succeeded. After warning the Americans that the Philippines would stop buying soybeans and possibly corn from the US if the dumping of these leg quarters here is not stopped, volume of importations went down considerably. The importation of leg quarters from the US was also hurting local chicken raisers who had to sell at higher prices not because their cost is higher (which is partly true) but because the American raisers have no market for dark chicken meat and therefore can sell the leg quarters even at a loss.
But now, they’re back. After a considerable period of hibernation, the importers are at it again, bringing in frozen leg quarters which are being sold not only in supermarkets and groceries, but also in the wet markets.
Unlike locally raised and dressed chicken, these American leg quarters come in frozen and many of these have been in transit for such a long time that they may no longer be safe to eat.
Again, the scrimping consumer is being forced to buy low-priced items even without assurance of quality and safety by businessmen who want to take advantage of the country’s current dire economic situation.
The World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the national academies of science in at least seven countries, and more than 3000 scientists all over the world have already arrived at a consensus that genetically modified food or GM crops are as safe as their traditional counterparts.
In fact, the Swiss Association for Research and Nutrition in a recent study said that organic food is neither healthier nor safer than conventional, or even GM crops. It was shown that organic food may contain more fungal toxins than food produced via conventional methods.
So how come the detractors of agricultural biotechnology have not stopped in trying to scare the consumers about the supposed unsafetyness of GM food? Some hidden agenda?
What are GM crops? In a recent forum, Dr. Nina Barzaga, director of the Institution of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology of the UP Manila National Institute of Health, explained that these are plants with particular genes inserted into them to improve their characteristics in a very specific way, as compared to their conventional counterparts.
The most controversial GM crop to date is transgenic Bt (Bacillus thuringensis toxin) corn that has been genetically engineered to make the corn plant resistant to the corn borer pest.
According to Dr. Barzaga, all crop production technologies are capable of producing unsafe food. Imagine the level of pesticides that go into conventionally raised crops. With the use of Bt corn, the need for crop protection products will be minimal if not none at all.
Biotechnology clearly has tremendous potential for revolutionalizing agriculture, food production, world nutrition, and health. However, as with any new application of technology, it is necessary to evaluate potential health risks. Thus, safety experts and regulatory agencies worldwide have designed science-based frameworks and safety assessment approaches for the evaluation of GM food crops.
Part of the difficulty lies in the lack of information and understanding of what biotechnology is. Increased knowledge will allow consumers to make informed decisions about food derived from this technology instead of listening to sweeping generalizations.
For comments, e-mail at rmaryannl@yahoo.com