THE Mindanao Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry has high hopes that the Halal industry development will be strengthened with the incoming administration.
Marilou Ampuan, founder of MICC told reporters Wednesday at the sidelines of Ureka Forum organized by the UnionBank of the Philippines at the Seda Abreeza Hotel that their positive outlook on the industry for the next six year is anchored on the President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s strong support for the Halal industry during his long stint as Davao City Mayor.
“In all fairness, Duterte even if he is not a Muslim, he is a believer of Islam,” she said.
Last year, Duterte backed the proposal of Councilor Bai Halila Sudagar to set up a separate lane for Halal products in supermarkets. Sudagar’s proposal was passed by the city council in April this year.
Ampuan was quick to add that part of their wish list from Duterte is for him to review the newly-signed Philippine Halal Export Development and Promotion Act.
Halal industry direction, for the Shari’ah aspects should be supervised by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) while the its technical and economic aspects must be backed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), she said.
When the outgoing President Benigno Simeon Aquino III signed on May 16 the Senate bill no 2831 or House Bill 6347, the Muslim community expressed dismay as it is more focused on its Halal export value rather than its religious significance.
“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 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.