Noy leads celebration of Nat'l Biotech Week

MANILA, Philippines –  President Aquino has been invited to deliver the keynote address for this year’s celebration of the National Biotechnology Week (NBW), which will be held at the SM Mall of Asia from Nov. 22 to 28.

Now on its sixth year, NBW 2010 has for its theme “Bioteknolohiya para sa Kalikasan, Kalusugan, Kagandahan, Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran. Ok ang 5K sa Biotech:Pagyamanin, Ito ay atin!”

Besides President Aquino, officials of several departments involved with biotechnology promotion nationwide will also deliver speeches for the duration of the celebration.

By law, the following departments are involved in the annual rites:  Department of Agriculture (DA); Department of Science and Technology (DOST); Department of Health (DOH); Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR); Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG); Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and; the Department of Education (DepEd).

Each year, two (department secretaries are tasked to co-chair the NBW committee. This year, the co-chairmen are Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Environment Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje.

The NBW organizing committee is chaired by Dr. Aida Adalla, director of the DA-Biotechnology Program Office (DA-BPO).

Co-chairwoman is Ms. Veronica Sinohin, supervising science research specialist of the DENR-Environment Research and Development Bureau (DENR-ERDB).

The week-long affair will be held at the Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center and IMAX at the SM Mall of Asia.

Government’s recognition of biotechnology and its contributions to national development was stressed when the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1997 allocated 10 percent of its P20-billion budget for its first year for research and development (R&D), “four percent of which shall be used to support the Biotechnology Program.”

In 1979, a presidential decree established the National Institute of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology at UPLB.

During President Corazon Aquino’s term from 1986-1992, biotechnology became a flagship program “to achieve sustained economic development.”

Regulation of recombinant DNA technology – now more popularly known as genetic engineering or genetic modification – followed with the issuance of Executive Order 430, which created the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP.)

Then President Joseph Ejercito Estrada also approved the institutionalization of biotechnology in government programs.

In 2001, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued a national policy statement “to promote the safe and responsible use of modern biotechnology and its products…to achieve and sustain food security, equitable access to health services, sustainable and safe environment, and industry development.”

On Nov. 9, 2007, President Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1414 which declared the last week of November of each year as NBW.