Former village official joins call for aerial spraying ban

Interface Development Interventions, Inc.
Contact Person: Jeffrey Tupas, 2994552

22 May 2006

Former village official joins call for aerial spraying ban

DAVAO CITY. A FORMER councilor from the village of Dacudao in Calinan District has joined the clamor against aerial spraying, a method widely criticized by many groups of farmers and environmentalists for its harmful effects to the environment and the health of people.

Saying she herself was a victim of the effects of the deadly synthetic chemicals used in the process, Cecilia Moran joined a group of farmers demanding the banning of aerial spraying. In a recent forum held in barangay Wangan in Calinan, Moran lambasted the banana plantation owners for their seeming disregard to the environment and people and likewise called on the authorities to hear the people�s pleas.

The government, she said, should realize that if they allow aerial spraying to continue, they identically allow the gradual killing of people living close to banana plantations who get wet by the deadly shower at least twice a week.

An emotional Moran said she personally experienced the potentially deadly effects of the yellow-colored chemicals sprinkled by the low-flying air planes. In one instance, she said, she went unconscious after practically bathing in the synthetic chemical.

"I don't know what our local leaders are thinking. My experience was already a manifestation that people exposed to the deadly chemicals used in aerial spraying are not safe. I collapsed after I was exposed to it and I was brought to the hospital," she said.

"With this I would no longer be surprised if one day, the residents of Dacudao will all wake up with serious illnesses because of the neglect and disregard of the officials whom we put to office because we thought they could help us," Moran said.

One member of Moran's family was diagnosed as having prostate cancer and the former village official could not think of anything to blame about the occurrence of the disease but aerial spraying.

"What else but the (synthetic) chemical that the company is using" said Moran who from being a councilor is now into farming.

Moran said their backyard would turn from its natural color to yellow every after aerial spraying that would also leave the whole place with sickening stench of chemical. Some of their crops were also damaged because of the practice.

"The stench and chemical drift are literally invading us, threatening us," Moran said.

Aerial spraying is a method used by commercial banana plantations all over the world to eliminate Sigatoka, a fungus that affects the production of banana plants. It is haunted by criticisms and oppositions because of the chemical drift that lands on streams, rivers, and houses and people living close to the plantations.

Aerial spraying would more often than not send residents, especially children, scampering for safety or else bath literally in poisonous chemical. The synthetic chemical usually used in the process is Mancozeb (with the trade name Dithane), a chemical banned by other countries for its ill effects to human and animals.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that the Mancozeb, with Ethylenethiourea (ETU) as its primary metabolite, is not safe for human because it is carcinogenic. The major routes of exposure to mancozeb are through the skin or from inhalation.

Coconut farmers from many villages of Toril, Calinan and Baguio Districts are now actively demanding for an immediate stoppage of aerial spraying after they have observed its effects to their crops and the threat it poses to the environment.

Various position papers and barangay ordinances have been passed just to support the impending passage of a proposed ordinance seeking for the total ban of aerial spraying being pushed by councilor Nenen Orcullo in the city council.

Backing Orcullo�s fight in the city council are the Panaghoy sa Kinaiyahan-Coalition for Mother Earth (Panaghoy); Interface Development Interventions, Inc (Idis); Bantay Kalikasan at Kabuhayan (Bakkal); Mamamayang Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas) and the group of international Filipino preacher pastor Apollo Quiboloy. -30-