EXCERPT: The President (of the Philippines) said the Vatican explanation would be used in government information campaigns on GMO seeds in this dominantly Roman Catholic country of almost 85 million.

The outgoing (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) president, Orlando Quevedo, told anti-GMO advocates that there has been "no official endorsement from the Pope."

The Vatican continues to discern and to observe prudence when it decides on fundamental issues such as food, which, the CBCP-Nassa said, are factors in the strong anti-GMO sentiments from Episcopal conferences across Asia, Africa and some European countries.
---
CBCP says Vatican never endorsed GMOs
(Manila Time) | Oct. 02, 2003
By Maurice Malanes, Inquirer News Service
http://www.inq7.net/reg/2003/oct/03/reg_1-1.htm

BAGUIO CITY -- The Vatican never endorsed Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs, a Philippine Catholic outfit said.

"(The) government's claims that the Pope has endorsed GMOs are unsubstantiated and premature," the National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa), social action arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said in a statement issued on Oct. 1.

The CBCP was reacting to news reports quoting President Macapagal-Arroyo who, after visiting Pope John Paul II in Rome last September 27, said the Vatican did not consider GMOs as immoral.

"We have our policies on GMOs, and I think what is important now for opposers is that the Vatican said that GMOs are not immoral," Ms Macapagal was quoted by the Agence France Presse as saying.

The President said the Vatican explanation would be used in government information campaigns on GMO seeds in this dominantly Roman Catholic country of almost 85 million.

The outgoing CBCP president, Orlando Quevedo, told anti-GMO advocates that there has been "no official endorsement from the Pope."

The Vatican continues to discern and to observe prudence when it decides on fundamental issues such as food, which, the CBCP-Nassa said, are factors in the strong anti-GMO sentiments from Episcopal conferences across Asia, Africa and some European countries.

As early as last July 19, the Nassa wrote to Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the pontifical council for justice and peace, informing him of Nassa's concern over the supposed endorsement of GMOs by the council.

"In reply, Archbishop Martino noted the validity of Nassa's arguments about GMOs' being anti-poor," said the CBCP-Nassa.

Martino thus requested the CBCP-Nassa to substantiate its arguments with evidence. In response, the CBCP-Nassa mobilized its diocesan social action centers, which have since been documenting farmers' experiences with Bt-corn seeds planted in some pilot farms.

The CBCP-Nassa disclosed that Nassa head, Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, is now in the Vatican and is set to meet with Martino to discuss the issue.

"Amid escalating opposition, government acknowledges that any pronouncement from the Vatican is pivotal in influencing the opinion of Filipinos on GMOs," Nassa said.

But the CBCP-Nassa stressed that it stands by its convictions that "GMOs subvert people's right to food" and this, it said, is "a human rights violation that arises from the patenting of GMOs as mandated by the World Trade Organization."

Groups opposing the planting of GMO seeds in the country said there is no sufficient guarantee that the genetically modified food would cause no harm.

But proponents of GMOs said there have been enough tests that proved that genetic tinkering did not put any hazardous substances into food.