INCOMING president and chief executive officer Jesus L. Arranza of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) wants to revive a measure requiring soap and detergent makers to use at least 60 percent locally-produced and bidegradable coco-based chemicals in their manufacturing activities.

The CIIF chief said he is now in the process of drafting a bill that could be introduced in the Senate. The bill will contain provisions similar to those in Executive Order (EO) 259, which require soap and detergent manufacturers to use at least 60-percent locally-produced cocochemical surfactants.

“If [the measure] will be revived, it will surely give a boost to local coconut farmers and the coconut industry, and at the same time contribute to government efforts to preserve the environment,” said Arranza, who is also president of the Federation of Philippine Industries  and the Coconut Oil Refiners Association.

“I have already [broached] the idea to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and he is willing to sponsor [the bill],” he added.

The measure was no longer implemented as part of the commitment of the Philippines to the World Trade Organization (WTO) under the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures. The agreement sought to correct the perceived distortions in some investment measures.

Arranza, however, said that the Philippines could still put in place a measure such as EO 259 in light of current efforts to preserve the environment.

“Under the WTO, a country is allowed to put in place measures that are designed to protect the environment and human health,” said Arranza.

In the paper entitled “Multilateral Punishment: The Philippines in the WTO, 1995-03,” Prof. Walden Bello noted that EO 259 required soap and detergent manufacturers “to use a minimum of 60 percent of raw materials that do not endanger the environment and prohibited the import of laundry soap and detergents containing less than 60 percent of such raw materials.”

Bello, who is executive director of the Focus on the Global South, said in the report that the law was passed to support the creation of the coconut processing industry by promoting the use of coconut-based surface-active agents of local origin.