Anti-GMO group to file SC case: Wants Stop To Gensan Field Tests

An alliance of people's groups against the introduction of so-called "genetically-modified organisms" (GMOs) into the country is filing a test case with the Supreme Court today to stop field tests being conducted in General Santos City on Bt corn, a new breed of pest-resistant maize.

"What's at stake is the right of the people to decide what's best for them," said Neth Daño, executive director of the Southeast Asia Regional Institute for Community Education and one of the prime movers behind the NO-GMO movement.

Vigorous opposition from militant farmers' groups and local officials concerned about the health and environmental safety effects of GMOs earlier forced biotechnology giant Pioneer Hi-Bred to pull out planned tests in Barangay Masaya, Bai, Laguna.

Pioneer Hi-Bred is the world's largest corn breeder, controlling about 34 percent of the $1.33-billion US hybrid-corn market.

A similar protest has snowballed in General Santos City, where Pioneer Hi-Bred's partner Cargill -- ranked No. 5 in 1989 among top seed companies in the world -- secretly started field tests at its 500-square-meter pilot farm in Barangay Katangawan last Dec. 15 without consulting concerned local government units.

The test case, primarily put together by lawyers and law interns of the UP College of Law's Office of Legal Aid led by its director, Marvic Leonen, is anchored on the powers delegated to local government units under the 1991 Local Government Code to decide on environmental issues within their respective jurisdictions.

Last September, the National Committee on Biosafety in the Philippines (NCBP) granted the applications for a series of tests on the "super corn" submitted by Pioneer Hi-Bred and Cargill on condition that the transnational biotech firms assume responsibility for the results of the experiments.

The NO-GMO, a network of over 30 groups from various sectors, is also questioning the power of the NCBP -- a body created by the former Aquino administration to screen the entry of GMOs into the country -- to grant permits to field-test the technology.

The General Santos City council has already passed three resolutions all chiding Cargill for conducting the tests without its approval.

Mayor Adelbert Antonio himself was quoted as saying the field tests were illegal because they never had the approval of the city council.

Observers say the Bt corn field tests could yet prove to be a good study of how society, in cooperation with local government authorities, could successfully push forward environmental advocacy within the framework of the 1991 Local Government Code.

Pioneer Hi-Bred and Cargill have been collaborating with the University of the Philippines-Los Baños' Institute of Plant Breeding since 1996 on "cutting-edge" technology to develop a new breed of maize resistant to the Asian corn borer, a scourge to many Filipino corn farmers.

Corn, scientifically known as Zea mays L., is the third most important crop in the world after rice and wheat, making up 20 percent of the world's total grain production.

The controversial corn biotechnology utilizes a naturally occurring soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which produces a protein poisonous to a range of insects.

The bacterium has been used as biological pesticide since the 1940s. But of late, scientists have isolated, through genetic engineering, the Bt gene so it could be injected directly into crops which, in turn, may produce their own insecticide through their seeds.

Here lies the problem, according to critics who warn of contamination of both humans and animals once the seeds are released into the open fields. They fear that the country's biodiversity would be disrupted by the introduction of "mutant" crop genes.

Until now, the NO-GMO movement said no one in the government can really say who will bear the criminal, civil and administrative liability for any untoward incident that may arise from the release of GMOs into the environment.

UPLB-IPB scientists, led by Dr. Eduardo Fernandez, initially conducted tests on Bt corn in "greenhouse" facilities provided by the International Rice Research Institute in Laguna.

The scientists said the biotechnology could increase corn harvest by at least 20 percent, and to determine its effectiveness in "real life" conditions, they urged the release Bt corn for "open field tests."