Board Member Nehemias dela Cruz yesterday said he has withdrawn his authorship of a proposed ordinance that would allow the co-existence of organic farming and Genetically Modified Organic-based farming in Negros Occidental.

The Negros Occidental provincial government has an existing ordinance banning GMO products in the province, and the proposed ordinance authored by Board Members dela Cruz, Enrique Miguel Lacson and Edgardo Acuña was seen as their response to the clamor from some sectors, especially from the poultry and livestock industries, to lift the ban.

Only de la Cruz is set to serve three more years on the provincial board, having won his reelection bid to represent the first district of Negros Occidental.

Lacson did not run for board member, while Acuña had run for mayor of Cadiz City and lost in the May 10 polls.

The proposed ordinance passed on second reading at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan but the SP committees on agriculture and law did not set it for public hearing. With the term of the current board members ending on June 30, there is not enough time for action to be taken on it without the public hearings, Vice Governor Emilio Yulo III said.

All pending ordinances are considered dead by June 30, and will have to be re-filed if there are those interested in doing so when the new board convenes, he added.

De la Cruz said he withdrew his authorship of the ordinance since there is not enough time for the present SP to act on it now.

This will give the new provincial officials, including the governor and vice governor, a free hand in crafting a possible new proposed ordinance, he said.

Incoming Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. is a staunch advocate of organic farming. It was during the term of his brother, the late Gov. Joseph Marañon, that the ordinance banning GMO products was passed and the plan to make Negros Island the organic food bowl of the country was conceived.