CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – As the International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) marked its 53rd anniversary yesterday, the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Resistance and Solidarity Against Agro-chemical TNCs (RESIST) urged Pres. Aquino to repeal a Marcos-era decree giving IRRI immunity from Philippine laws and jurisdiction.
The peasant groups said Presidential Decree 1620 by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos gave IRRI “the license to plunder Filipino farmers’ traditional rice varieties and trample upon the country’s sovereignty.”
“We challenge Aquino to repeal Marcos’ PD 1620 and hold IRRI accountable for its crimes against farmers.
IRRI is guilty of plundering farmers’ rice diversity around the world and to the death and illness suffered by rice farmers due to their promotion of poisonous pesticides and chemicals,” says KMP secretary general Antonio Flores.
The IRRI is maintaining a so-called International Rice Genebank known as the world’s largest collection of rice genetic diversity, containing more than 114,000 types of rice. According to IRRI, these are used in breeding programs to improve rice varieties throughout the world.
Flores said “IRRI’s high yielding varieties of rice and corn promoted during the Green Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s led to the increasing use and dependence to pesticides and herbicides paving the way for agrochemical transnational corporations’ virtual control over rice and corn production and agriculture.”
“For 53 years, the IRRI has been mainly responsible in the continuing control of agrochemical TNCs over agriculture,” he said.
The KMP accused IRRI of being primarily responsible in the field testing and ongoing plans to commercialize the genetically-modified ‘Golden Rice’ allegedly to address Vitamin A deficiency.
“During the 70’s, farmers were blinded that IRRI’s rice research would increase rice productivity.
Today, under the guise of addressing the so-called Vitamin A deficiency, IRRI is blinding farmers and cover up its scheme to strengthen agrochem TNCs control over farmers’ seeds,” the KMP leader said.
“It is totally ironic that despite the Philippines’ hosting of IRRI and making Los Banos, Laguna an international embassy of agrochem TNCs, our country continues to import rice. As long as IRRI is in the country and serves as an instrument of agrochem TNCs, food security and self-sufficiency remains a pipe dream,” Flores said.
