THE Philippines may start implementing in 2022 its revised biotechnology procedures that seek to streamline bureaucratic processes and fast-track the approval of food technologies beneficial to the public.
The chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Biosafety Committee, Vivencio R. Mamaril, said the government has completed the amendments to the current Joint Department Circular (JDC) 1 series of 2016 or the rules and regulations governing management of biotechnology products in the country, including approval and importation.
Mamaril explained that the amendments were completed last year, with the new JDC being circulated already among Cabinet secretaries who are signatories to the document. They expect the new JDC to be implemented within the first quarter of this year, he added.
The salient features of the new JDC include the reorganization of the top-level committee that would review biotechnology applications and streamlining of certain steps in the approval process.
He told the BusinessMirror one key feature of the new JDC “is first, proponents will only have to apply for a biosafety permit once. There is no need for renewal anymore, unlike before wherein the biosafety permit expires after five years.”
Second, he added, “the regulatory procedures have been shortened and streamlined. Before, it was tedious since the application underwent numerous layers of bureaucracy.”
Under the new JDC, Mamaril explained that applications will go through the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), which will determine if the application has complete documentary requirements. The application will then be forwarded to the Joint Assessment Group (JAG) that will evaluate the application and make recommendations to the BPI head.
The JAG will be composed of representatives from the DA, Department of Health, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The JAG will be chaired by the DA biosafety committee head. Other government agencies like the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will help and coordinate on certain steps required in the approval process, such as for field trials.
In the past, applications go through the BPI for documentary completion, and are then scrutinized by various regulatory agencies individually before being evaluated by the biosafety committee for the final recommendation to the BPI chief.
“The new JDC is being circulated already for the signing of the secretaries. If I am not mistaken, it should be completed before the end of last year so that it will be published and observe due diligence [this year],” Mamaril said.
“Applications under the new JDC will now take 200 days or less than year compared to before wherein the average processing time is about 300 days, with some applications reaching 500 days,” he added.
Mamaril guaranteed stakeholders that public consultation remains a key part of the approval process of biotechnology products. He pointed out that the public consultation for biotechnology products seeking regulatory approval will be conducted prior to the JAG’s assessment.
Mamaril noted that proponents and applicants will also save money under the new regulatory rules since the government has waived STRP fees. The STRP is the assessment of third-party experts or panels on applications that is required in every step of the application, costing proponents at least P100,000.
“This is a manifestation of a regulatory impact assessment. We saw that regulators are taking so much time to come up with a decision. Delayed decision is a regulatory cost,” he said.
“The new procedures are also issued to ensure food safety and security of the country,” he added.
A Global Agricultural Information Network (Gain) report noted that approval and renewal of biotechnology products under the current rules are “lengthy.” The Gain report added that the Philippines’s new JDC is “expected to be finalized by 2022.”
“The agencies involved in the JDC 1 are reviewing how to modernize and streamline the regulatory framework, making note to comply with the Ease of Doing Business law. The revised JDC may be finalized by early 2022,” the report read.