More groups urge Arroyo to ban aerial spraying
11/21/2009 | 05:53 PM
More groups have joined the call for Malacañang to issue an executive order banning aerial spraying in Mindanao farming communities.
The non-government Southeast Asian Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) recently wrote to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urging her to stop aerial spraying of pesticides in banana plantations in the South, particularly in Davao City.
Farm workers are blaming the spraying for the spread of respiratory diseases and allergies as well as the contamination of water sources in their area.
“We believe that your office has the mandate and the responsibility to ensure the rights of every Filipino farmer, their families and communities to a safe and healthy environment should be protected and secured, SEARICE policy information unit coordinator Paul Pedro Borja said in his letter to Mrs. Arroyo.
“We further urge you (President Arroyo) to use the power of your office to direct the banana industry to honor their corporate social responsibility and cooperate towards achieving the recommendations set out by the Department of Health (DOH) in the greater interest of public health," added Borja.
SEARICE commended the efforts of the DOH for standing by and adopting the key recommendations arising from its study prepared for the Philippine Society of Clinical and Occupational Toxicology and the University of the Philippines’ National Poison Management and Control Center.
The DOH study recommended the stop of aerial spraying, and the shift to more environment-friendly organic farming techniques. Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and other bishops under the Church Province of Manila had also urged Mrs. Arroyo to address the problem.
Go Organic Mindanao (GOM), a coalition of non-government organizations, people’s organizations, and individual advocates of sustainable agriculture, also joined the call against the allegedly harmful farming practice.
GOM said aerial spraying being practiced by banana plantations for 30 years “has been contaminating many farm lots with synthetic pesticide residues and hence has prevented many farmers in Mindanao to practice organic farming,"
“Non-plantation farms near or beside banana plantations are very vulnerable to pesticide drift during aerial spraying because of the absence of vegetative buffer zones surrounding the plantations," it added. - GMANews.TV
The non-government Southeast Asian Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) recently wrote to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urging her to stop aerial spraying of pesticides in banana plantations in the South, particularly in Davao City.
Farm workers are blaming the spraying for the spread of respiratory diseases and allergies as well as the contamination of water sources in their area.
“We believe that your office has the mandate and the responsibility to ensure the rights of every Filipino farmer, their families and communities to a safe and healthy environment should be protected and secured, SEARICE policy information unit coordinator Paul Pedro Borja said in his letter to Mrs. Arroyo.
“We further urge you (President Arroyo) to use the power of your office to direct the banana industry to honor their corporate social responsibility and cooperate towards achieving the recommendations set out by the Department of Health (DOH) in the greater interest of public health," added Borja.
SEARICE commended the efforts of the DOH for standing by and adopting the key recommendations arising from its study prepared for the Philippine Society of Clinical and Occupational Toxicology and the University of the Philippines’ National Poison Management and Control Center.
The DOH study recommended the stop of aerial spraying, and the shift to more environment-friendly organic farming techniques. Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and other bishops under the Church Province of Manila had also urged Mrs. Arroyo to address the problem.
Go Organic Mindanao (GOM), a coalition of non-government organizations, people’s organizations, and individual advocates of sustainable agriculture, also joined the call against the allegedly harmful farming practice.
GOM said aerial spraying being practiced by banana plantations for 30 years “has been contaminating many farm lots with synthetic pesticide residues and hence has prevented many farmers in Mindanao to practice organic farming,"
“Non-plantation farms near or beside banana plantations are very vulnerable to pesticide drift during aerial spraying because of the absence of vegetative buffer zones surrounding the plantations," it added. - GMANews.TV
