The government has allowed Monsanto Philippines Inc. to begin commercial production of the genetically modified Bt corn for harvesting by April, an official of the Bureau of Plant Industry said.

"Everything is in order and Monsanto... to complied with every requirement," the official said.

Monsanto will start production of the Bt corn early this year and will harvest its first crop by April the official said.

The company will distributed about 15,000 bags of Bt corn seeds in the corn-producing regions in northern Luzon as well as in southern and northern Mindanao.

Environmentalists has asked the agricultural department to revoke Monsanto's license, saying the company, during the field trials, failed to devote at least 20 percent of of its planted area with hybrid corn or traditional corn varieties as required by the law.

This requirement is necessary to prevent the corn borers form of the mutating to a highly resistance pest referred to as "supper corn borers", the group said.

Monsanto's application for the commercialization of Bt corn was initially approved in December, with the government specifically approving the company application for limited commercialization of an insect resistance corn variety called YieldGard.

The genetically engineered Bt corn has a protein gene proven to be resistant to the Asian corn borer, which can damage as much as 80 percent affected corn plantations. From the average traditional corn production of less than three metric tons a hectare , Bt corn yield has gone up to nine tons a hectare.

Monsanto's license is valid for five years, and is renewable for a five-year period if the company proves the continued production doesn't pose any significant risks to health and the environment.

Meanwhile, Sorsogon Bishop Jesus Varela recently called on critics of agricultural biotechnology "to keep an open mind" saying it would be "a terrible mistake to reject new technologies because unfounded and unproven fears".

Varela made the call during the conference on the Ethics of Genetically Modified Organisms held in Rome recently. The conference was attended by Catholic church leaders worldwide.

The Sorsogon prelate said the modern food biotechnology "is offering a significant breakthrough". He said that while caution is important in the introduction of genetically-modified plant varieties, "proceed we must or suffer the blight of stagnation and expose humanity further to starvation and even extinction".

Varela's statement came in the wake of a raging debate in the country over the adoption by the Philippine government of agricultural biotechnology as an anchor of its program to achieve food sufficiency and security.

The policy has been vigorously opposed by Europe-based pressure group Greenpeace which reportedly launched a heavily-funded campaign to stop the government from allowing the domestic propagation of the high-yielding pest-resistant biotechnology processed crop varieties.  Greenpeace warned that the use of agricultural biotechnology will bring about "millions of dead bodies and sick children, cancer cluster and deformities.