The government is now putting the finishing touches on an executive order (EO) that will guard the country’s genetic resources and ensure the Philippines will get its fair share in the commercial use of its biodiversity.
According to estimates, the global market for pharmaceutical and food products that use genetic resources is valued at about $200 billion.
Environment Undersecretary for Climate Change Service Analiza Teh said a draft EO on “Access and Benefit Sharing of Philippine Genetic Resources” will be ready for submission to Malacañang by the end of the year.
According to Teh, members of a technical working group (TWG) created to refine the draft order that was presented during a climate-change adaptation, mitigation and disaster-risk Reduction (CCAM-DRR) Cabinet Cluster meeting last month are now conducting a thorough review of the proposed guideline.
“We have met on November 17, and we are hoping to finalize the draft EO. Our target is to finalize the draft EO and submit it to Malacañang by the end of the year,” she said, noting that members of the TWG have given substantial comments during their meeting.
“We will try to integrate all these comments to the draft EO,” said Teh, who acts as head of the Secretariat of the CCAM-DRR. “One of the proposals is the creation of an interagency body that will coordinate the whole process of ensuring access and benefit sharing.”
The plan, she added, is to harmonize processes of key agencies with mandates over genetic resources.
Teh said the TWG is keen on giving the role of overall coordinator to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Moreover, the members of TWG proposed the conduct of national inventory of Philippine genetic resources with potential commercial value.
“It was proposed to complete the process flow from inventory to patenting, research and development until commercialization. The final draft EO will harmonize rules and regulations or protocols. They want that to give the EO more teeth so that the concerned government agencies will be compelled to follow the proposed guidelines. They want it more refined, more focused and more clear,” she said.
The EO hopes to include in the interagency body key agencies, such as the National Museum, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory, Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health, Intellectual Property Office and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Teh was tasked by Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, who vowed to put in place a guideline on Access and Benefit Sharing of Philippine Genetic Resources to ensure access and, more important, fair and equitable sharing of the benefits, to the Philippines and the communities that own the genetic resources from which active ingredients with potential medicinal or pharmaceutical values can be extracted, whether they are animal- or plant-based.
Earlier, Rep. Josephine Ramirez Y. Sato of the Lone District of Occidental Mindoro underscored the need for urgent Executive action to protect the country’s genetic resources against biopiracy, by putting in place a stronger national policy.
In a statement, the vice chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives said the country has the potential of becoming a global leader in the supply of plant-based raw materials for health and wellness products, given its rich biodiversity.
“We need to put in place a stronger national policy to ensure that the country, especially the communities where our resources are found, will benefit from the conduct of research and development to extract active ingredients from plants with high medicinal and other commercial value,” Sato said.
Sato has filed House Bill 2163 for this purpose, which is consistent with the country’s commitment as party to several international treaties, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, which states that if access is given to do research and ultimately use of genetic resources, fair and equitable benefit sharing must be observed.
The bill also seeks to ensure that the indigenous people and the communities that protect animal- or plant-genetic resources will benefit from these resources in case they are developed and commercialized.
Teh said market trends and potentials from genetic resources is enormous. For the pharmaceutical industry alone, the market value as of 2008 is pegged at $643 million, while the estimated market value of healthy foods, including functional foods, natural and organic, is pegged at $120 billion.