He said the NCMF is coming up with accreditation standards for halal-certifying bodies as required by Republic Act 

(RA) No. 9997 or the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Act.


Section 8h of RA 9997 states that among the functions of the NCMF is to promote and develop the Philippine Halal 
Industry and accredit halal-certifying entities or bodies for the benefit of Muslim Filipinos.


Halal refers to the prescribed process of preparation of products according to Islamic law.


Mr. Lidasan said that while there are already halal-certifying bodies in the country, accreditation standards to be 

released by the government will help ensure the quality of the country’s halal industry.


"The accreditation standards will have requirements that halal-certifying bodies will have to meet.


This will improve halal industry standards because now, there will be basis and not just anyone can become a 

halal-certifier," he said.


He said that in line with promoting and developing the country’s halal industry, the NCMF is also planning to work on 

unifying various halal standards.


The NCMF, he said, however, will not be coming up with a final version of the unified halal standards, but will just 

facilitate such.


"Unifying national standards will involve convening the religious leaders who will review the various standards and 

come up with a final one that [religious leaders] will give to us," he said.


The review, he said, will cover the Philippine National Standards on Halal Food as well as those from the Agriculture 

department.


The Agriculture department, through the Halal Food Industry Development Council, is drafting three additional halal 

standards namely, Halal Standards on Agriculture and Fishery Products, Code of Halal Slaughtering Practices for 

Poultry, and Code of Halal Slaughtering Practices for Large Ruminants.


Mr. Lidasan said there was no specific target for convening the religious leaders to unify the halal standards but 

they want to be able to do it within the year.
"We want to do this as soon as possible. We want to do this this year," he said. -- Louella D. Desiderio

Muslim group to release halal standards