THE Muslim community expressed dismay with the signing of the Philippine Halal Export Development and Promotion Act of 2015 as it is more focused on its Halal export value rather than its religious significance.
Marilou W. Ampuan, chair of the Halal Committee of the Tourism Congress and founder of Mindanao Islamic Chamber of Commerce (MICC) told Sun.Star Davao in an interview that the legislation of the Senate bill no 2831 or House Bill 6347 known as Philippine Halal Export Development and Promotion Act of 2015 has accorded very little meaningful consultations and inclusive legislative participation by the important stakeholders of the Halal industry.
“The act places too much emphasis in the trade and export aspects of Halal regulation without due regard to its religious significance to Muslim Filipinos and the rest of the Muslin world,” she said.
The Philippine Halal Export Development and Promotion Act of 2015 was inked last May 16 by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.
The new law as described is “an act instituting the Philippine halal export development and promotion program, creating for the purpose the Philippine halal export development and promotion board, and for other purposes.” It also stipulates the mandatory certification on halal products for exports, as distinguished from the products for distribution and sale in the domestic market.
“The inordinate haste in the passage of the bill in both Houses during the last few session days of the 16th Congress accorded very little, if at all , opportunities for meaningful consultations and inclusive legislative participation by the important stakeholders of the Halal industry and the larger Muslim Filipino constituency,” she added.
Ampuan emphasized that Halal is “evidently rooted in Islam” which she described as not only a religion but is” a way of life with protocols, rules and manners governing every facet of life.”
“The ultimate sense Halal regulation, promotion and development requires whole government cooperation, there is no escaping of the basic fact that Halal cannot be divorced from its Shari'ah aspects of life,” she said.
The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) released last week its official stand on the matter saying that the “the message to the ordinary Muslim Filipinos is that the government is only concerned in the integrity of Halal for its export value rather than the protection of the well-being and interests of domestic Muslim consumers, thereby putting the interests of ordinary Muslim Filipino below that of foreign Muslims.”
Aside from NCMF, the Federation of Bangsamoro Civil Society Organization also shares the same sentiments with the Muslim community on the recently inked law.