Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson approved on Wednesday, July 15, the allocation of ₱24,968,575.56 to finance the Provincial Biosecurity Task Force’s fight against Red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI) that have attacked Negros Occidental’s sugarcane fields.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the six-month funding is geared towards saving the province’s l 2026 sugarcane crop.
He added that the task force has already drawn up a comprehensive battle plan and will begin field operations next week.
This is a race against time and the task force will complement the work undertaken by the Sugar Regulatory Administration, which is the lead player, Diaz said.
The biosecurity initiative allocates funding for field inspection, monitoring, pest control implementation, laboratory propagation, and advanced scientific research and development aimed at immediate field containment and long-term biological solutions.
Under the program, the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) has been allocated ₱1,557,000, while the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) receives ₱7,629,000 for the deployment of personnel and essential materials to combat the infestation, Diaz said.
To transition the province away from chemical reliance and toward sustainable, eco-friendly pest control, a total of ₱4,759,549 has been allocated for the bio-materials team and biological control agents.
The single largest financial commitment in the entire biosecurity program is directed toward the CO-LAB Research and Development project, which has been granted ₱11,023,026.56 to pioneer scientific solutions and crop rehabilitation, Diaz said.
The primary driver of this R&D budget is the Biocon Lab, which receives ₱6,441,066.61 to enhance microbial isolates and scale up the biological control propagation of Metarhizium, a natural, pest-killing fungus.
To bolster this defense system, ₱661,250 is allocated to the BioMaterials Lab for the propagation of parasitoid wasps.
Diaz added that ₱3,317,807.50 will be used to map the resistance profile of various sugarcane varieties to identify pest-resistant crops, while the remaining ₱602,902.45 is designated for whole-genome sequencing to map the genetic vulnerabilities of the target threat.
On Tuesday, Governor Lacson declared that the Negros Occidental provincial government will “go green” in its campaign against the RSSI, and will not fund the proposed island-wide chemical aerial spraying.
He emphasized that the provincial government will exclusively support biological control methods to stop the spread of the pests and protect the local ecosystem.*
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