THE officer-in-charge of the City Agriculturist's Office here said there is no need for a bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplant since the city already has abundant eggplants that are just fine and definitely safer.
This after a forum was conducted on December 9 at the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao, where Dr. Eufemio Rasco said there is nothing wrong with Bt, a soil bacterium inserted into eggplant genes to produce Bt eggplant that is resistant to borers.
Rasco believes Bt eggplants holds the key to global food security and addressing environmental problems since the genetically modified eggplants can now fight pests by itself.
But OIC Leonardo Avila sees no need for such experimentation, which, he said, just eats up government funds that would have been put to better use.
"We do not need Bt talong. It might be safe as what they have said, but Davao City has already a very nice produce of eggplants and we are able to control the fruit and shoot borer," Avila said.
Avila added there is no major disease besetting the eggplant that it needs to be injected with a bacterium.
He said both friendly and non-friendly insects are part of a plant's life.
na merong friendly insect at meron ding not friendly insect.
Avila also raised the question of who UP is doing the experiment for to the extent that they would insist that it be done despite public and government opposition.
"Is it coming from their fund? If it is, then that's a very important matter. Are they not depriving any other services just to come up with that Bt eggplant? I hope they could answer that," Avila said.
City Mayor Sara Duterte has written to UP-Mindanao declaring her protest against the field trial of the Bt eggplant and insisting on a confined field trial instead of the open field trial UP-Mindanao has embarked on.
Two barangay councils -- Bago Oshiro and Mintal -- where the field trials are held, have also passed resolutions opposing the experiment.
But UP-Mindanao insisted on proceeding with their field test.
Avila said UP-Mindanao is well aware of the city's opposition, thus, if it insists on its testing, the city might just pass an ordinance prohibiting Bt eggplant. (Ivy C. Tejano/Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
