GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Claiming genetically modified organisms are "very much safe," a government-backed biotechnology advocacy group has declared that the Philippines no longer needs to label various food and other consumer products that contain the controversial genetically-modified (GM) products.

Dr. Benigno Peczon, president of the Manila-based Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines Inc., pointed out that "conclusive studies" made by scientists and medical experts worldwide have substantially affirmed the safety of the GM products.

"Why label if these products are in fact safe? (Labeling them) doesn't make sense," he told reporters in a biotechnology forum in Alabel, Sarangani last week.

Peczon said labeling the GM products is not practical since it would only increase their prices by 10 to 12 percent and these would eventually be borne by the consumers.

He particularly cited products such as the wheat-based infant food, beverages, canola oil and potato chips that are currently being sold in the local markets

He said the cost of production of these products would increase due to the additional costs on the segregation of the raw materials or ingredients, the testing of the contents and their storage.

"This will pose a big problem since average Filipinos spend at least 60 percent of their income on food," Peczon said.

According to an impact study on the "cost implications of GM food labeling" released last year by the Bureau of Food and Drugs Administration, the mandatory GM labeling "will have a devastating impact on the viability of corporations, unless the incidence of costs can be passed on to consumers in terms of higher selling price of finished food products."

The study indicated that "GM-free soy and corn-based food products will cost 10 percent to 12 percent more with the percentage of the raw material cost to the selling price at 30 percent, 20 percent for sales and marketing cost, manufacturing cost, 10 percent and packaging cost, one percent."

In 2001, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the labeling of GM-derived food and food products but it failed to get the national government's nod.

Marikina Rep. Del de Guzman introduced the "Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act," which demands that food and food products containing genetically modified organisms or those produced through genetic engineering technologies be labeled as such.

Peczon said his group, which was created as an offshoot of the Department of Trade and Industry's efforts to develop the country's biotechnology sector, believes that a government's decision on whether GM products should be labeled or not is no longer necessary since GMOs have been proven to be safe.

He said government has already acknowledged the safety of GM products and that even adopted the development of biotechnology as a major government policy.

Last year, several groups opposed to the genetically-engineered Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn mounted their campaign against the crop following claims by a Norwegian scientist that several residents from Sitio Kalyong, barangay Landan in Polomolok, South Cotabato, where Bt corn had been planted, could have been exposed to the Bt toxin.

Dr. Terje Traviik, a scientist from the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, said a study on the blood samples 39 B'laan residents from the area yielded positive of exposure to Bt toxin.

In August 2003, about 100 residents from Sitio Kalyong were documented to have been suffering from headache, dizziness, extreme stomach pain, vomiting and allergies, about three months after local farmers planted some hectares with Monsanto's Yieldgard 818, the firm's Bt corn variety.

But Peczon, who was among the medical experts sent by the government to the area last year to look into the matter, claimed that Traviik had already acknowledged his mistake in issuing such findings to the public last year.

"He (Traviik) reportedly admitted in a recent briefing that what he released then were premature findings and he even parried further questions about it," he added.