Republic of the Philippines
House of Representatives
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 540 3

INTRODUCED BY ANAKPAWIS PARTY-LIST REPRESENTATIVE
ARIEL B. CASILAO
CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE, EMMI A. DE JESUS, ANTONIO L. TINIO,
ARLENE D. BROSAS, FRANCE L. CASTRO, AND SARAH JANE I. ELAGO

EXPLANATORY NOTE

A world without International Rice Research Institute is a world free from
monopoly of rice crop varieties and from diseases and deaths brought by IRRI's
agro-chemicals. IRRI’s existence in the Philippines is more than half a century
but failed to contribute in attaining food security in the country. This concrete
situation pushed Filipino peasantry, agriculturists and scientists, food security
advocates and people’s organizations to press the government of agricultural
programs and policies based on genuine rural development, free from foreign
monopoly control and sincere in achieving food security for the people.

IRRI was established in 1959 by virtue of a Memorandum of
Understanding between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and
both the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. The institute was envisioned to be
the world’s prime mover in rice science and technology purportedly to reduce
food-insecurity-related poverty in the Philippines as well as in the rest of the
rice-producing countries in the underdeveloped regions.

Fifty-seven years hence, however, according to the Kilusang Magbubukid
ng Pilipinas (KMP), a nationwide peasant organization, IRRI cannot at all claim
of its positive contribution to the food security of the country or of other poor
and agricultural countries. IRRI’s researches, which they claim to improve rice
and even com production have not led to any significant development in the
country’s agricultural productivity. In fact, the state of Philippine agriculture
has consistently worsened to the point that the very host country of IRRI, fell to
becoming the world’s biggest net importer of rice in 2008, and being the third
last year, following China and Nigeria.

One of the highlighted cases of extreme starvation and production
difficulties was experienced by more than 6,000 farmers and Lumad people
from Kidapawan and other parts of North Cotabato in Mindanao, who protested

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demanding food on April 1, 2016. While this was predominantly driven by the
extreme drought, they also suffered abuses such as displacement and
militarization that hampered their agricultural cultivation and exacerbated their
access to food. Worsening was, the government neglect, amidst the many
reports of hunger, the local and national government failed to address the
situation, through immediate food relief and assistance. The farmers’ action
were replied with a bloody dispersal by the Philippine National Police known as
the Kidapawan Carnage that left two farmers dead, more than a hundred
injured and seventy eight detained, including elderly and pregnant women.

If IRRI actually accomplished anything, it was the institutionalization of a
rice production system that is highly dependent on agro-chemical products
such as pesticide, promoted by its transnational corporation (TNC) partners,
IRRI’s science and technology mandate has long been geared almost solely
toward the constant development and dissemination of hybrid, genetically
engineered crops to complement and perpetuate the use of the said harmful
chemicals promoted by predatory TNCs such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer,
Dow Chemical, Du Pont and BASF among others. For over five decades now,
IRRI has indeed been an instrument of monopoly capital's onslaught upon the
agriculture of the Philippines and of other Third World nations.

The introduction of IRRI's high yielding varieties of rice and corn grains
during the now infamous Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s led to an
unprecedented use of and dependence to agro-chemicals that eventually
harmed the natural ecosystem in the rice fields. Scientific tests have in fact
proven how genetically modified (GMO) crop varieties produce particular types
of toxins and allergens that not only prompt allergic reactions but could also
cause damage to vital human organs.

On April 8, 2015, Bill Gates, the 2017 Forbes richest billionaire, donated
USD10.3 million dollars to IRRI through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
(BMGF) intended for various research on genetically modified Golden Rice, a
genetically manipulated variety that contains beta carotene. According to
Masipag, a network of farmer’s groups and scientists, the funding will be used
for high technology purported solutions like chemical farming and GMOs that
would create further trouble among poor peasant families and consumers.

Moreover, IRRI is enjoying its immunity to the point of blatant disregard
of its workers who were exposed to harmful and dangerous agro-chemical
products and outright violations of labor rights. According to Brotherhood of
IRRI Support Services Group (BISSIG), a labor organization in IRRI, it has been
abusing its international status through its seemingly endless list of violations
of its workers’ rights to organize, to collectively bargain and negotiate, and to
hold strikes. Moreover, IRRI is enjoying its immunity to the point of blatant
disregard of its workers who were exposed to harmful and dangerous agro-
chemical products and outright violations of labor rights. According to

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Brotherhood of IRRI Support Services Group (BISSIG), a labor organization in
IRRI, it has been abusing its international status through its seemingly endless
list of violations of its workers’ rights to organize, to collectively bargain and
negotiate, and to hold strikes. At least 8 former IRRI workers, who used to apply
pesticides in IRRIs field test farms, had died due to pesticide poisoning, as
reported by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Philippines based from its fact-
finding mission in 2000.

In 1979, President Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1620 declared
IRRI as an international organization, with all the privileges and immunities
that came with the granting of such status. IRRI thus has been able to justify
its anti-labor practices. IRRI has intermittently carried out mass lay-offs in
1989, 1993 and 1996. It has implemented a questionable retrenchment
program that has warranted the unfair dismissal of regular employees. The
institute has also engaged in union busting which included the harassment of
union leaders and members.

‘These workers have failed in their various attempts to seek redress from
the courts given IRRI’s immunity from suit which it enjoys under Presidential
Decree No. 1620. The same immunity has also been invoked to bar the workers
from claiming compensation for having been afilicted with illnesses due to
exposure to toxic chemicals and to inhuman working conditions.

Presidential Decree No. 1620, however, is not an international pact that
cannot be repealed. IRRI does not in fact approximate a party such as a
representative of any sovereign state entitled to privileges and immunities as are
contained in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Neither can IRRI
invoke to be an entity comparable to a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Moreover, the international agreement signed by former President Fidel
V. Ramos and representatives of ten (10} countries in May 19, 1995, which
acknowledged IRRI as an international organization has yet to be ratified by
the Philippine Senate. The said agreement furthermore does not compel any
party to the agreement to grant IRRI any privileges and immunities or any
form of financial support.

‘This legislative measure seeks to repeal PD 1620 precisely to strip IRRI
of these said unjustifiable privileges and immunities which have been used to
grossly violate the fundamental rights and freedom of IRRI workers with
impunity, as well as, shielding from potential legal liabilities brought about
agro-chemical agriculture, impact on the environment and health. This bill,
which was filed during the first regular session of the Fourteenth Congress by
then Anakpawis Representative Rafael Mariano and during the third regular
session of the Sixteenth Congress by former Representative Fernando Hicap is
being refiled today to fulfill the rights of Filipinos and decisively challenge the
collusion of IRRI and agro-chemical TNCs, in the hope of altering the



country’s agricultural dependence on agro-chem, which is contributory to the
deterioration of people’s health, producers, as well as consumers, and
significantly, wiped out the traditional practices of food production in the
country. Thus, this is not only in defense of the welfare of Filipino workers
and peasants but also a commitment to Philippine sovereignty and
patrimony.

In view of the foregoing, the speedy passage of this bill is earnestly
sought.

REP. B. CASILAO
ANAKPAWIS Party-list

ATELY De OS

BAYAN MUNA Party-list GABRIELA Women’s Party

P. AN’ (0 L. TINIO 4 NE D. BROSAS

ACT Teachers Party GABRIELA Women’s Party

REP. ICE h. STRO REP. JANE I, ELAGO
ACT Teach¢Js Party KAHAYAAN Party-list


Republic of the Philippines
House of Representatives
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bit no.0 403

INTRODUCED BY ANAKPAWIS PARTY-LIST REPRESENTATIVE
ARIEL B. CASILAO
CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE, EMMI A. DE JESUS, ANTONIO L. TINIO,
ARLENE D. BROSAS, FRANCE L. CASTRO, AND SARAH JANE I. ELAGO

AN ACT REPEALING PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1620 OTHERWISE

KNOWN AS “GRANTING TO THE INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH

INSTITUTE (IRRI) THE STATUS, PREROGATIVES, PRIVILEGES AND
IMMUNITIES OF AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION”

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Presidential Decree No. 1620 otherwise known as “Granting
to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) the Status, Prerogatives,
Privileges and Immunities of an International Organization” is hereby repealed.

SECTION 2. All laws, jurisprudence, executive orders, executive
issuances or letter of instructions, or any part thereof, inconsistent with or
contrary to the provisions of this Act are hereby deemed repealed, amended or
modified accordingly

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) national newspapers of

general circulation

Approved.