The Department of Agriculture (DA) will launch the Biotechnology Research Fellowship Program (BRFP) and the Teachers Manual today during the opening rites for the 3rd National Biotechnology Week at the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) building in Quezon City.
The week-long celebration will highlight government’s programs and activities in promoting the safe and responsible use of modern biotechnology.

With this year’s theme "Pinoy Biotek: Para sa Kalusugan, Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran," the celebration focuses on the benefits of agricultural biotechnology products in improving the livelihood of farmers.

Agriculture Undersecretary for Field Operations Jesus Emmanuel M. Paras and Director Alicia Ilaga, head of the Department of AgricultureBiotechnology Program Office (BPO), will lead the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening an exhibit of biotech products at the ground floor of the BSWM building .

The exhibit showcases different plant-derived products and byproducts, such as personal health-care products and food supplements developed in the Philippines by Filipino entrepreneurs, as well as the latest technologies and equipment for processing natural ingredients, such as leaves of the lowly malunggay.

Malunggay is being promoted for backyard and commercial plantation by the DA as a strategy to help mitigate hunger and poverty in the countryside. In Caraga, malunggay was adopted as the chief crop for the DA’s "one house, one vegetable program."

Targeting the world’s natural ingredients industry is one of the two directions identified in the DA Biotechnology Roadmap, the other being the enhancement of traditional agri-fishery products through modern biotechnology.

Among the guests during the opening ceremony are Dr. Edita Burgos, Executive Director of the Biotechnology for Life Media and Advocacy Resource Center (BMARC), who gave an introduction about biotechnology, and Dr. Nina Gloriani Barzaga, president of the Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines (BCP), who rendered a brief acknowledgement speech.

Early this month, President Arroyo signed Presidential Proclamation 1414, declaring the last week of November of each year as the National Biotechnology Week, in recognition of the national policy to promote the safe and responsible use of modern biotechnology and its products as one of the several means to achieve and sustain food security, equitable access to health services, sustainable and safe environment, and industry development.

Dr. Libertado C. Cruz, Executive Director of the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) led the launching of the DA Biotechnology Research Fellowship Program.
The Biotechnology Research Fellowship Program will complement the expansion in commodity assignments of the existing science laboratories of the Agricultural Biotechnology Center (ABC), which was established two years ago to augment limited manpower and address the urgency of modernizing Philippine agriculture.

At least 14 research fellows will benefit from the project’s initial P25 million fund.

The formal launch and turnover of the Biotechnology Teachers’ Manual will be made by Dr. Cynthia Hedreyda, team leader and professor of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (NIMBB)University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Dr. Wiliam Medrano, executive director of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), will accept the manual.

The NIMBB of UP-Diliman team was commissioned by the DA-BPO and the BCP to come up with the teaching manual for the integration of the biotechnology course in the curriculum of state colleges and universities (SCUs), a major step in the integration of biotechnology into the regular college curricula.