Senator Edgardo Angara has urged the administration to carry out the Halal industry development as a national government thrust, saying the venture is teeming with “huge market” potentials worldwide that could tremendously jack up the country’s economy.

“The halal industry has a huge market…Its development should be part of a national agenda,” Angara told the opening of the two-day 2nd national halal forum at the Makati Shangri-la Monday morning.

Angara lauded the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) regional office of South-Central Mindanao under Director Dr. Zenaida Hadji Rauf-Laidan for sponsoring for the second time the national forum, stressing though that the task should have been a national government responsibility.

Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Angara said if the present regime fails to make the halal industry development a national thrust, he “would see to it that it will be included in the national development agenda of the next government.”

“At present, the halal food market constitutes some twelve percent (12%) of the global trade in food products. The marketing of products and services in countries with Muslim population presents a challenge to the multinational companies (because) Muslim countries are indispensable to MNCs,” he said.

Dr. Laidan in her opening remarks said the term halal means “permissible” and it is mandated for Muslims to consume foods and non-food products that are processed through scientific and technical processes on experts can do.

She said the series of forums her office sponsors would hopefully help orient stakeholders towards ensuring and sustaining “halalness” (purity) in food and non-food products processing.

Laidan, a Muslim scientist, said there is available ST laboratory in Cotabato City, which is a component of her administrative region, which can be made as national halal development hub.

The city is also the “temporary seat” of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which is also advocating intensified halal industry drive.

Australian Ambassador Roderick Smith, like Senator Angara, graced the two-day halal forum as fellow keynote speaker and guest of honor.

Smith said his country and the Philippines, though both affected by the global financial recession, could tap the halal industry as a tool to recover fast from the economic set back. The world halal industry is staid to be generating some $600-billion revenues.

Representative Cynthia Villar also attended the forum as another guest speaker, citing a pending legislative agenda for the legislation of appropriate measures for the development of halal industry in the Philippines.

Thailand’s Dr. Winai Dahlan, Malaysian Dr. H. Zakimi Bin Chik, Singapore’s Shahlan Hairalah, Malaysia’s Tina Manzi Jamaluddin and London-educated Darhim bin Dali Hashim alongside 11 local experts lectured on the different aspects of the halal industry on Monday and Tuesday.

Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Region XII Director Sani D. Macabalang, a discussant in the forum, advocated anew for the issuance of an edict through a Presidential order to finally reconcile the private sectors with concerns government agencies in the certification and processing of halal products from the Philippines.