By Amita Legaspi
A militant farmers' group warned the National Food Authority (NFA)
against importing rice particularly from the United States as these may be
genetically modified.
In a telephone interview with GMANews.TV, Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas spokesman Carl Ala said importing rice from the US increases the
danger of exposing local consumers to genetically modified rice.

?Kailangang maging maingat sa pag-iimport lalo na galing sa US. Mas
malaki ang danger na mapasukan tayo ng genetically modified rice dahil
walang mechanism para ma-detect ito (We need to exercise caution in
importing rice from the US. There is now a bigger danger that genetically
modified rice could get through, especially since we do not have a mechanism
to detect this)," Ala said.

Ala noted that upon the request of environmental group Greenpeace, a
Quezon City court last year issued a temporary restraining order against the
entry of rice variety Liberty Link 62 (LL-62). LL62 - produced by Bayer Crop
Science Inc. - is genetically modified to resist a powerful weed killer.

Greenpeace had questioned the apparent lack of public voice and public
consultation on GMO approvals by the Department of Agriculture and Bureau of
Plant Industries.

In the interview, Ala said the NFA should closely scrutinize rice
imports from the US, saying genetically modified rice can easily be mixed
with normal rice. He said what makes the matter worse is that the
Philippines has no law regarding GMOs.

?Pag pinalitan ng sako paano mo pa malalaman? Nalusutan na tayo last
year (If they place it in a different sack, how can we still detect?
Genetically modified rice have already passed through the checks last
year)," Ala said referring to the rice imported by Bayer.

?Tina-try na mapasok sa Pilipinas e bawal yan sa ibang bansa. Dito sa
atin gustong i-test (They have been trying to get it into the Philippines
because it has been banned in other countries. They want to test it here),"
he added.

On the other hand, the NFA said it only import rice that have been
cleared to be GMO-free, noting that the government has ways to determine if
the rice is genetically modified.

In a telephone interview, Rebecca Olarte, NFA assistant public affairs
manager, assured that quality checks are being conducted at the source
country.

"Sinisigurado na na-clear yung bigas bago i-import... May
representative from the Bureau of Plant Industry na nagche-check ng quality
ng bigas bago i-load. Pina-certify yan sa isang certification agency (We
ensure that the rice are cleared before they are imported here... We have a
representative from the Bureau of Plant Industry who checks the rice quality
before they are even loaded for importation. We have them certified by a US
certification agency)," Olarte said.

Olarte, however, admitted that the NFA has yet to obtain the document
which certifies the 10,000 sacks of rice that arrived at the NFA warehouse
on Monday.

She said they are ascertaining whether the new batch arrival is part
of the importation batch of some 44,000 sacks of rice that arrived in Subic
last week which was cleared by a US certification agency to be GMO-free.

In the interview, Olarte further clarified that it was not the
government that imported the rice which was found to be contaminated with
genetically modified organism last year. "Private company ang nag-import
n'un. Lahat ng stocks na yun sinunog then na-dispose (It was a private
company that tried to import it here. Upon discovery, all its stocks were
burned and later disposed)," she said.
[www.gmanews.tv]