The government cannot strictly enforce rules imposed by the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards in the quality of corn grains because of lack of funds.

The Bureau of Post-Harvest Research and Extension (BPRE) indicated in a report that government policies, including Administrative Order (AO) No. 2080, Republic Act 3729, and Bureau of Animal Industry AO No. 35 could not be implemented to ensure the quality of corn and feed products that enter into the market because of the lack of funds to monitor establishments involved in corn and feed products. Government laboratories are also not equipped with facilities to do aflatoxin testing in corn areas," BPRE said.

Feed millers experience delays in the availment of government facilities for testing aflatoxin level n corn. The high cost of laboratory analysis and the lack of facilities and personnel in maintaining these facilities all contribute to the unacceptable corn quality.

Surprisingly, even large corn processors and some feedmillers do not go through consistent corn quality monitoring. This suggests how even worse corn quality regulation system is in small scale corn processors and among farmers themselves who are not even aware of aflatoxin contamination in corn.

Aflatoxin, a mycotoxin found to cause many cancer types, contaminates corn during the post-harvest storage period specially when the grain is not properly dried.

Traders do have their corn grading system, but these devices do not exactly conform with feedmillers' grading systems which has caused unnecessary rejection in farmers' corn production on the feedmillers' level.

BPRE has pushed for the Bureau of Food and Drugs' (BFAD) and BAI's monitoring of aflatoxin level in corn through adequate provision for aflatoxin testing kits of these agencies in each region. It also pressed for the improvement of database management of corn's aflatoxin contamination so that government will be able to address this problem more efficiently.

The Philippines is foreseen by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to produce 5.48 million metric (MT) tons of corn this year, up by 1.2 percent from last year's 5.413 million MT.

Mr. Catedral said the diocese will not waver in its stance against Bt corn, stressing that Church workers have been in continuously educating the flock even at the level of the Basic Ecclesiastical Communities against the use of Bt corn.

He said, though, that if Bt corn is proven safe through a worldwide scientific consensus, they would stop opposing it, and even help promote the product. "At the moment, we are still not sure of Bt corn's safety that's why we are very vocal against it."