THE Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplants in a field test at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao (UP-Min) were uprooted Friday, four days after Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte issued a cease and desist order.

The uprooting will continue on Saturday since it was already growing dark. The chopping and burial of materials will also be done on Saturday.

Duterte issued an order for the uprooting of the Bt eggplants, some 1,800 hills in an experimental station inside the UP-Min campus last December 13.

The uprooting was supposed to have been done Thursday, but this was called off since the UP-Min through officer-in-charge Vic Calag, who is representing Chancellor Gilda Rivero who is out of the country, asked for a five-day reprieve.

At that time, Mayor Duterte was also out of town and could not be contacted.

When finally contacted late afternoon Thursday, Duterte told City Agriculture Office officer-in-charge Leonardo Avila III that the order remains and that Avila should oversee the uprooting the following day.

The uprooting was thus set for 3 p.m. after Avila coordinated with Ramon Millora of the Bureau of Plant Industries (BPI) Plant Quarantine Division and BPU Bio-tech national officer Merly Palacpac.

At the site, however, Duterte texted Avila to wait for the UP officials who wanted to witness the uprooting.

The officials arrived around 4:30 p.m. and stalled the uprooting, saying proper protocol dictates that the uprooting can only be done with the proper authorization from the BPI.

Palacpac also said that since the order of uprooting does not come from them, then they do not need to issue any written authorization and should make sure that the proper procedures of destroying the plants are followed.

This means, she said, that the Bt eggplants are uprooted, chopped and buried within the restricted area.

Protocol also dictates that only members of the Institutional Biosafety Committee and laborers whose names have been submitted to the BPI three days before can be allowed to enter the restricted area.

Since the order was to implement the uprooting, then only those present were allowed inside, including IBC member UP personnel Cyrose Suzie Silvosa and Mario Navasero, researcher of UP in Los Baños. With them inside the restricted area to oversee was Dr. Ruth Gamboa of UP-Min.

The field is made up of 50x50 hills of which the five hills deep on all sides are regular eggplants intended to serve as pollen traps.

Outside, the information about the experiment says these were planted on November 25, 2010.

The letter of Mayor Duterte stating her opposition to an open field trial and insisting on a strictly confined environment was dated October 16. It was acknowledged after a follow-up on December 6, only last December 7, and the response to the mayor's letter was received only on December 13.

The primary opposition of the city against the continued testing is that there were no proper public consultations and hearings held. There were just one forum inside the school in September and another after the follow-up by the city in December.

The BPI on June 28 released the Biosafety Permit for the Field Testing approving the conduct of the trials "provided (UP-Mindanao) followed stipulated conditions."

"However, based on the report of the Davao (CAO), you have complied with only three of 15 conditions that enable you to engage in such field testing," Duterte informed the university.

She added that UP-Min was "also unable to conduct a public consultation through the posting of the Public Information Sheet for Field Testing approved by the BPI."

The consultation is a requirement, based on the Administrative Order 8 Series of 2002 of the Department of Agriculture, which detailed the approval process for field testing of regulated articles, Duterte said.

The uprooting was witnessed by supporters of organic farming in Davao City and the media.

When the different groups arrived, there were posters hanged around the cyclone wire fence chiding the city for not following the "rule of law" and for not "respecting academic freedom."

There were also posters castigating Avila.

These were later covered by the protesters with their posters demanding safe food and pro-people technologies.