Aseptic Technology in Philippines
During the 90’s Dr. S. del Rosario, a virologist attended a conference abroad and found out that Tissue Cultured plants may carry the virus in the flask. This has been known since the early 60’s. As soon as she got back to the Philippines she had been telling everybody about the possibility of the virus being distributed through aseptic technology which the whole industry already knew came from faulty tissue culture technique.
In a statement of self importance, because her status as consultant of the Plant Quarantine Office has not been rationalized, she declared tissue cultured plants are at risk of carrying the virus and should be placed as the highest risk among the quarantine materials so that the PQ office will need her as consultant.
The industry was prepared to counter this ludicrous declaration because it will impact on the laboratory development program and the conservation works in orchids but she was kicked out of public service due to vested interest before the industry can challenge her flawed risk analysis. The issue was lost.
2 decades after (present time), the trainee/assistant of Dr.del Rosario, Ms. Merle Palacpac became the chief of Quarantine section of the Bureau of Plant Industry after the previous chief of Quarantine was unceremoniously kicked out due to cause after a lifestyle check.
The Aseptic culture industry got alarmed again when the BPI Plant Quarantine Office sent 2 of their quarantine officers to 2 separate public events and declared on both occasions that the flasks have the “highest risk” in the Philippine Plant Quarantine rules. Both quarantine officers even proudly declared that imported flask should be subjected to Elisa test, which means they need to take samples of the little plants inside the bottles, grind it up to get the sap for testing. That means contaminating the whole flask. This is the ultimate in technical ignorance of the quarantine officers.
A check with USDA Hawaiian Plant Quarantine office last October resulted in the Hawaiian quarantine officer laughing off the idea that aseptic cultures being declared the highest risk in Philippines. The officer stated that “It can not get any cleaner than a flask.”
The very office responsible for the risk analysis of pests have declared the flasks as the “highest risk” which means the big plants that come in through the illegal por kilo system is the safer imports when allover the world, flasks are considered the safest materials to import. This is the ultimate in technical ignorance and incompetence. It is about time that the private sector challenges the competence of these government workers for obstructing development of tax payers.