Davao court junks suit vs toxicologist, journalist

DAVAO CITY- A Regional Trial Court in Davao City dismissed a seven-year old suit filed by a banana plantation against a toxicologist, who heads a nongovernment group that lobbies against the use of pesticides, and her journalist daughter. Judge Renato Fuentes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 11 in Davao City found no proof to order Romeo Quijano, a medical doctor and head of the Pesticide Action Network Philippines, and her daughter Ilang-Ilang, a journalist who wrote about the alleged effects of pesticide poisoning on farmers, to pay damages. In his decision Fuentes said: "In the final analysis, the evidence of the Company did not apparently show convincing proof...the subject publication devoid of criminal prosecution for libel as already established, do not prove in a separate civil action filed, any malicious intent of defendants against the corporation, to produce an action for damages." The suit was filed by the Lapanday Agricultural and Development Corporation (Ladeco), a major banana producer and exporter in Mindanao, against the Quijanos. The case stemmed from an article written by the Quijanos about the alleged ill-effects of pesticides on the health of farmers in Kamukhaan village near Ladeco’s banana plantation in Digos, Davao del Sur. The story came out in the defunct Philippine Post in 2000. A criminal libel case filed by Ladeco against the Quijanos and the Post's editors and publishers were dismissed in 2002. The Quijanos's article "Poisoned Lives" reported the story of an entire village allegedly poisoned by persistent aerial and ground spraying on the Ladeco banana plantation. The Quijanos wrote of villagers with skin problems, headaches, coughing, all classic symptoms of pesticide poisoning. The authors also claimed to have found several deaths attributable to the pesticides used on the plantation since the early 1980s. In August of 2000, ladeco filed a libel suit against the authors for P20 million. The case eventually dismissed, but Ladeco later filed another suit, this time for P5.5 million. Ladeco also filed a motion to cite the Quijanos for contempt, demanding that PAN Asia and the Pacific Regional Center remove an article about the alleged poisonings from their website. Dr. Quijano's study of Kamukhaan was first published internationally in 1997 and has become influential testimony for the restriction of certain pesticides and the promotion of safer and more equitable agricultural policies. In 1993, a transnational pesticide manufacturer, Hoechst, also filed a P22 million suit against Dr. Quijano in response to statements made in a public lecture about health hazards of Endosulfan, a Hoechst product. After attracting much local and international attention, the case was dismissed and the Philippine government eventually banned further use of the product in the country. - GMANews.TV