Times Press Releases

Manila, 15 September 2008 – Greenpeace today called on the Philippine Senate to enact a legislation to ban the commercialization of genetically-modified rice (GMO) rice.  The call was made at the opening
of a photo exhibit in the Senate halls, featuring the importance of rice in Filipino life and culture and why it must be protected from risky genetic modification.
“Greenpeace is here at the Senate to lobby our senators to enact a legislation to protect our most important staple food from the inherent risks of genetic engineering.  Genetic engineering is an unproven, unpredictable and unnecessary technology.  The resulting genetically-modified food crops threaten human health, the environment, and farmers’ livelihoods,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Genetic Engineering Campaigner Daniel Ocampo.
Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs are products of genetic engineering in which the genes of one species are inserted randomly into the DNA of an entirely different organism in a way that can never happen naturally.  An example is a tomato inserted with genes from a fish to create a vegetable with a longer shelf life, or corn inserted with bacteria genes to create a crop that has its own built-in insecticide. Aside from the fact that the resulting living GMO would never occur in the natural world, the new organism created becomes a living experiment—it is unpredictable and its long term effects on the
environment and human health are unknown.
Greenpeace has been actively campaigning against the commercialization of GMOs in the country and is currently questioning the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) regulation process for GMO crops, which, aside from being unconstitutional, lacks transparency and appears to be heavily influenced by corporate interests rather than the protection of consumers and farmers.  During the past few years, the environment group has noted with growing alarm how the regulatory bodies for GMO crops, the DA as well as the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), have never rejected an application of a GMO despite documented cases on questions of their safety and rejection by other countries, even by countries where they were developed.
Last year, Greenpeace also released a report which details how almost all key personalities involved in regulating the entry of GMOs in the Philippines are members of pro-GMO lobby groups funded directly or indirectly by multinational GMO corporations, or have been involved in research projects and GMO-promotion activities sponsored by GMO lobby groups, or directly by GMO manufacturers.  In the six years since GMOs have been approved in the country, the DA has been approving GMOs at a rate of almost one every month, without adequate public consultation or information.
Greenpeace believes that rice is now under threat.  Currently no GMO rice is authorized for commercialization in the Philippines but the environment group has documented that such experimental rice from the United States has entered the country’s food chain at least twice in the past three years.  The DA has denied both instances but has refused to conduct stringent testing on the said US rice.  The GMO rice strain in the US rice was the result of an abandoned experiment, and its contamination of rice stocks created a major scandal that prompted countries to reject US rice imports in 2006 and 2007.
At present, an application for GMO rice is pending at the DA, but in 2007, petitioners, supported by Greenpeace and SEARICE filed a court case questioning the constitutionality of the existing regulatory
process for GMOs, as well as the lack of public participation in the said approval process.  This led, in September 2007, to the granting of a preliminary writ of injunction on the application of the GMO rice.
The court case is currently on-going.
“The Philippines is a center for rice biodiversity and rice is our most important food.  The clear message then is that the government must reject GMOs and instead look toward a future of farming and food production grounded on the principles of sustainability, protection of biodiversity, and providing all people access to safe and nutritious food,” said Ocampo.

THE SEPAK takraw team of Puerto Princesa won third in the recently held Kings Cup Sepak Takraw World Championship in Bangkok, Thailand in the men’s double event division and men’s team event division.

Held on August 25-30 this year, the city team bested players from Thailand and Malaysia who were reported to be all hard to beat.

National coach Camilo Apdon said it was hard for the city team to particularly beat players from the two countries because they were very good. Sepak takraw or “foot volleyball” involves stunning athletic moves, such as overhead kicks and flying somersaults.

Meanwhile, Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn lauded the achievement of the city team, saying they gave Puerto Princesa something to be proud of.

“I am not expecting them to win because when they left Puerto Princesa we really had no funds allotted to support them. I am so happy because despite what they lack, they still worked hard to win a bronze medal,” he said.

The Sangguniang Panlungsod, on the other hand, through Councilor Rebecca V. Labit, said they will give focus in the development of the sport in the city as part of its sports tourism capital campaign and to help the sepak takraw players improve their individual skills.

Several Southeast Asian countries claim sepak takraw as their own. The game has been played by the indigenous people of what is now Malaysia since the 15th century. Known as sepak raga—sepak is Bahasa Malaysia for “kick”—the game was played in the courts of early Malaysian royalty. “There are many references to it in Malayan folklore,” according to the International Dictionary of Sports and Games.

When Malaya was under British rule the game was partly replaced by rugby, cricket, and other sports.

However, it survived in rural surroundings where it was a favorite recreation of the Malay peasants.” The game survived because of its simplicity:

All that was required was a woven ball, and the game could be played indoors or out.

Its popularity was reinforced because it required many of the skills of soccer, which was also popular in Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries.

THE WILD Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP) is bringing the 2008 Philippine Bird Festival in Puerto Princesa on September 12-13 with a theme “Aba, Kakaiba!” that aims to acquaint residents of the city and province about different kinds of birds and the protection of their habitat.

The 4th Philippine Bird Festival will be opened at the Puerto Princesa City Coliseum on September 12 by a photo exhibit about various kinds of birds, display, lectures, film showing and other related activities. Entrance to the exhibit is free and all are invited, particularly students.

Meanwhile, before the Philippine Bird Festival, the 1st Bird Conservation Forum will also be held on September 11 at the Asturias Hotel. The forum’s objective is to gather all bird watching hobbyists, conservationist, eco-tour promoters and other stakeholders to discuss the protection, preservation and conservation of their habitats.

City Mayor Edward S. Hagedorn expressed full support to the holding of the bird festival, saying he believes that protecting them is important to the ecosystem.

The entire province of Palawan has been declared a Fauna and Flora Watershed Reserve, and, within this, there are other kinds of protected areas including the St Paul Subterranean National Park (which is important for threatened species including Polyplectron emphanum) and the El Nido area (which has been proposed for protection under the Integrated Protected Areas System). Ursula Island (17 ha), 20 km south-east of the southern tip of Palawan is an important roosting and nesting site for pigeons including Ducula pickeringii and the widespread Nicobar Pigeon Caloenas nicobarica (Near Threatened). It was established as a bird sanctuary in 1960, but there has been a significant decline in the numbers of roosting pigeons, from an estimated 150,000 to a few thousand birds over the last 60 years, perhaps owing to the effects of introduced species and human disturbance.

Among the birds known to inhabit the city and province are Palawan Peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron napoleonis), Blue-headed Racquet-tail (Prioniturus platenae), Palawan Tit (Parus amabilis), Sulphur-bellied Bulbul (Ixos palawanensis), Palawan Striped-babbler (Stachyris hypogrammica), and many more. (City Information Office)