Page 2 - Hello Philippines February 2016 'B' issue

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MALAYBALAY City, Bukidnon
- A top official of the Department of
Agriculture (DA) discloses that farmers
in Mindanao have been producing
their own version of genetically-
modified (GM) corn using both Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) and Roundup Ready
(RR) corn seeds.
So-called Roundup Ready crops
are those genetically modified to be
resistant to the herbicide Roundup, the
brand-name of a herbicide produced by
the company Monsanto.
The official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity to protect his career in
government, said these seeds are being
sold at P4,500 per nine-kilogram bag,
or, comparably, P200 less than the
minimum cost of P4,700 per bag for
Bt corn seeds in Cagayan Valley, or
Region 2, where GM corn varieties are
grown widely.
In that region, the most expensive
GM seeds cost P5,000 per bag.
Referred to colloquially as “ukay-
ukay” or “sige-sige,” the GM corn
seeds sold by the farmers in Bukidnon,
North Cotabato and other corn-
growing provinces are not subject to
government regulation.
“The practice has not only alarmed
Monsanto, Syngenta and other foreign
companies producing GM corn seeds
that are good only for one generation
(F1), but also raised questions about
the risks that such clandestine seed
production poses on traditional
varieties and the environment,” the DA
official said.
He added that what makes the
COCKTALES Ka-ching! Consing, BPI officers win incentives ahead of Year of the Monkey
BPI president Cezar Consing and the
top officers of the Bank of the Philippine BPI shares, this means about an extra
Islands have reason to cheer the coming
of the Year of the Monkey.
The Zobel-controlled bank
distributed its latest round of stock
options to officers from the vice
president up, ranging from 3,000 to
10,000 shares for each VP and another
15,000 a head for the senior VPs.
The five executive vice presidents —
Simon Paterno, Joseph Albert Gotuaco,
Daniel Gabriel Montecillo, Ramon Jocson
and Antonio Paner—were naturally
given higher, at 20,000 shares each.
The top banana, Consing himself,
was accorded 60,000 shares.
At P70.87 option price as against
P86.50/share closing on January 25,
when the shares were granted, each
banker was already up 22 percent on
grant day even without trading.
The good news did not end there.
Two days later, the Banco de las
Islas Filipinas, as the country’s oldest
surviving bank is called in its founders’
tongue, distributed a 90-centavo cash
dividend among its shareholders.
situation strange “is that the technology
to produced Bt and Roundup Ready
corn seeds was apparently developed
by people from Monsanto, Syngenta
and other transnational agricultural
companies.”
In short, he jested, the very same
companies that are complaining
about the clandestine seed production
actually “sent” their experts to do
“extension work” in Mindanao.
The corn industry is worth about
P90 billion annually, and the yellow
corn produced is crucial for the
survival of the poultry and livestock
industry, since corn grits provide
carbohydrates to animal feeds and
comprise anywhere from 50 percent to
60 percent of the total feed ingredients.
In contrast, the country imports 100
percent of the soybean requirements
of the animal feed industry and 100
percent of the soybean meal produced
is GM.
The Bureau of Agricultural
Research (BAR) actually promoted
the use of sweet potato or “camote”
as replacement for soybean meal for
animal feeds, and has also teamed up
with the Southeast Regional Center
for Graduate Study and Research in
Agriculture (Searca) to develop root
crops as alternative staple food for
hundreds of communities to intensify
its food security campaign.
Farmers unable to produce their
own seeds are depending more on
“ukay-ukay” or “sige-sige” to produce
glyphosate-tolerant corn other than
the Roundup Ready seeds sold by
For Consing, who owns over a million
P1 million in his pay envelope, another
incentive to start the lunar year right.
Meanwhile, over at Ayala Land, director
Vincent Tan, has turned to the stock
market for his Christmas and New Yearang
pao, now that he is 65 and has retired from
management.
Between Christmas and Chinese New
Year, Tan had disposed 195,000 ALI shares,
giving him six million more reasons to
enjoy his panoramic penthouse view of
Metro Manila.
A Canadian citizen, Tan still has over 12.8
million ALI shares squirreled somewhere,
a nest egg that is still worth P400 million
even in these bearish times.
BPI’s main headquarters on Ayala Avenue in Makati. headquarters while apparently keeping
©InterAksyon.com file
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Monsanto that tolerate herbicides
or the higher-yielding Bt corn which
raised yellow corn output nationwide.
“While the trade may seem illegal,”
he added, “the market has apparently
accepted these seeds. Moreover, the
sale of the GM corn seeds here is not
covered by any plant patent, which
means the companies do not own the
seeds upon sale.”
Moreover, GM corn seeds are good
only for F1, and farmers are skirting
around the limitation by producing
their own seeds.
In the United States, Monsanto and
other companies have figured in a clash
with farmers who have used their own
GM-based seeds, since these firms own
patents that extend their ownership
rights to the crops.
“The ‘ukay-ukay’ system is fairly
easy, since farmers plant areas with
Bt corn or Roundup Ready seeds
Makati loses another tenant to
Taguig. Roxas Holdings is the latest listed
company that is moving out of Makati in
favor of Taguig to take advantage of the
latter’s lower tax rates.
“Management is of the opinion that
the change in the principal office address
from Makati City to Taguig will provide the
corporation certain tax benefits,” Roxas
Holdings said.
The sugar refinery conglomerate,
which has been based for decades at the
Cacho-Gonzales building in Legaspi Village,
will transfer to the Net One Center in the
Fort, but did not say when.
Three years ago, taipan Lucio Tan’s
holding company, LT Group, took a condo
unit at the Bench Tower also in the Fort
and officially declared it as its corporate
the bulk of the conglomerate offices in its
Ayala building.
Two listed Aboitiz companies, Aboitiz
Equity Ventures and Aboitiz Power, also
followed suit, choosing to relocate its Cebu coursed through the Philippine Stock
offices to Taguig instead of Makati, despite Exchange.
the Aboitizes having their own building in
Legaspi Village.
February 2016 / Fortnightly – No. 4 • UK & Europe Edition
alongside hybrids and open pollinated
varieties (OPVs), with the three kinds of
corn then interbreeding and producing
crops that are then bombarded with
glyphosate and infested with the
Asiatic corn borers (ACB.) The grains
from these fruits are then planted, and
if they survive the herbicide and the
pests, it means they inherited the traits
of Bt and Roundup Ready corn,” the DA
official said.
He revealed that the system of
genetic selection among conventional,
hybrid and GM strains is completed in
three cropping seasons for corn, which
lasts a maximum of four months each.
This seed production system would
most probably continue due to the
December 15, 2015 decision of the
Supreme Court (SC) to ban the entry
of GM crops even if the petition filed
by Greenpeace, former congressman
Teddy Casiño and the Kilusang
For details of the tax advantages,
the official Taguig website has posted a
comparative table, listing its business
and real estate tax rates as well as of
those imposed by Makati and other
Metro Manila cities.
For instance, and the following
figures come from the Makati-based
Pronove Tai international property
consulting firm, Taguig’s takes a smaller
real property tax bite, 2.5 percent of the A Japanese supplier of e-TrikeBayan,
assessed value, versus the 3 percent of
Makati.
Money talks
• President Aquino will receive an
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
degree from the Jesuit-run Loyola
Marymount University in Los Angeles on
February 17, right after the two-day US-
Asean leaders summit in Sunnylands,
the Camp David of the West.
• And speaking of prosperous
beginnings, BDO president Nestor Tan
himself welcomed the new year with
about P6 million jingling in his deep
pockets, courtesy of two timely disposals
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) only
covered the field testing of Bt eggplant,
a vegetable that produces proteins toxic
for fruit and shoot borers.
The toxin is lethal only to borers, but
the Supreme Court ruled that the risks
posed by Bt corn to laboratory mice (in
a study conducted in 2011 by Dr. Eric
Giles Seralini of the University of Caen in
France) showed that GM corps possibly
posed risks to humans as well, and that
there was no “scientific certainty” that
Bt eggplant would be safe.
Bt eggplant is now being produced
and consumed in Bangladesh without
any harmful effects on humans, the
International Service for the Acquisition
of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA),
which monitors work on biotech crops
worldwide, said.
Filipino plant breeders worked on Bt
eggplant for years before the Court of
Appeals (CA) issued a writ of kalikasan
against the field testing of the vegetable
in 2012, while Bangladesh worked on
it without judicial interference and
government eventually approved it.
The DA official stressed that the
production of “ukay-ukay” or “sige-
sige” corn seeds in three cropping
seasons does not guarantee 100
percent performance, but farmers are
taking the risk in order to raise their
yields and earn an extra P10,000 per
hectare per season.
To ensure the better performance
of their corn seeds, farmers should test
them during the wet and dry seasons
for a total of three years. n Diego Mora /
InterAksyon.com / February 10, 2016 / 2:10 pm
Even better, Tan exhibited good
timing, having disposed 57,030 BDO
shares at P105 and P106, as against
Thursday’s close of P99.50.
The BDO president still has over
6.9 million BDO shares saved, which
elevates him into a quite respectable
neighborhood of P700 million.
Heard through the grapevine.
the battery-powered tricycles now
plying the inner Mandaluyong streets,
has been placed on the immigration
watchlist.
The Japanese, who goes by the
twin names of Kawauchi Shinsuke and
Tajima Syuichi, delivered only 20 of
the 100 contracted tricycles.
The upside to this unfortunate
episode: e-TrikeBayan proponent,
Guevent Investments Development
Corp. chairman and president
Ricardo Guevara, has been forced to
manufacture the tricycles themselves,
sourcing the batteries locally and
modifying the e-trikes to suit local
conditions. n Victor C. Agustin / February 12,
2016 / 3:25 pm