An official of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) has opposed a moratorium on the field testing of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant, saying it would deprive the country of “a very promising technology.”

Dr. Clarito Barron made his position in response to the July 29, 2010 letter by lawyer Joy Angelica P. Santos Doctor, counsel of the Southeast Asian Research Institute on Community Empowerment (SEARICE), on BPI's approval of the tests in seven sites nationwide.

Barron made it clear that BPI issued the approval for multi-location field trials based on the policy of the Department of Agriculture (DA) under Administrative Order No. 8 (AO 8).

Under the order, no regulated article shall be released into the environment for field testing unless “a Permit to Field Test has been secured from the BPI, and the regulated article has been tested under contained conditions in the Philippines.”

Barron explained that Bt eggplant had satisfied the two conditions required under AO 8.

“Bt eggplant has undergone contained trials (screenhouse and single location contained field test) under the supervision of the Department of Science and Technology-Biosafety Committee (DoST-BC)as indicated in the certificate of completion issued on 30 March, 2009,” he told Doctor.

He added that the proponent, University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB), submitted an application for multi-location field trials and satisfied all the requirements.

“The proposal for the field trial, entitled “Development and Commercialization of Philippine Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB) Resistant Eggplants Containing MAHYCO Eggplant Even, EE-1: Multi-location Field Trials fro Biosafety Assessment, Variety Accreditation and Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) Registration” was endorsed by the UPLB Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). The objective of the study is to generate the following information on promising eggplant genotypes containing MAHYCO event EE-1 for biosafety assessment, variety accreditation and FPA registration: Yield and horticultural performance; biosafety against EFSB infestation and damage; incidence and non-target insect pests and diseases, and; other insect resistance management (IRM)-related information,” Barron narrated.