A party-list lawmaker is seeking congressional intervention on the alleged action by government to rush the issuance of a joint administrative order on the new rules and regulations on research, approval and commercialization of genetically modified organisms crops.
Rep. Fernando Hicap said that on Dec. 5, 2015, the Supreme Court issued its final ruling concerning the GMO, particularly on the BT eggplant case, upholding in the process an earlier Court of Appeals decision.
“Assessing the evidence on record, as well as the current state of GMO research worldwide, the court finds all the three conditions present in this case—uncertainty, the possibility of irrevocable harm and the possibility of serious harm,” its decision read.
Several groups—Greenpeace, Magsasaka at Siyentifiko para sa pag-unlad ng Agrikultura, Green Action PH, Advocates of Science and Technology for the People, Pesticide Action Network Philippines, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and the Center or Health Initiatives and Management of Eco-systems—have also urged Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala not to rush the issuance of rules and regulations on GMO crops.
Hicap authored House Resolution 2650 “expressing the sense of the House of representatives against the fast-tracking of a joint administrative order on the rules and regulation for the research and development, handling and use, transboundary movement, release into the environment and management of plant and plant products derived from the use of modern biotechnology.”
The Department of Agriculture has reset the signing of a joint department order on Feb. 23.
He noted the SC decision also temporarily stopped the government from accepting application for field testing, propagating, and importing GMO and effectively nullified Administrative Order No.8 series of 2002 or the “Rules and Regulation for the Importation and Release into the Environment of Plant and Plant Products Derived from the Use of Modern Biotechnology.”