ENVIRONMENT-PHILIPPINES: Aerial Spraying Case - Profits Vs Public Health

• by Prime Sarmiento (manila)
• Monday, December 22, 2008
• Inter Press Service

A few months ago, after being weakened by tuberculosis, Moran retired from farming. Her illness, Moran said, was brought on by constant exposure to aerial spraying with toxic pesticides.

Big agribusiness corporations in Davao employ aerial spraying to kill ‘Sigatoka’, a fungus that attacks the leaves of banana plants and causes premature aging of fruits. Bananas, primarily grown in Davao, are a valued export crop and earns for the Philippines over 400 million US dollars in export revenue each year.

'I experienced chest pains. My children also fell ill because of exposure to aerial spray,' Moran said, adding that she and her children had to move with her father as he lives at a distance from the plantation.

Banana exporters are reluctant to switch to the safer ground-spraying method as this is costlier. The struggle over health and profits has led to a year-long legal tussle between small farmers and local officials on the one hand and big agribusiness corporations on the other.

Banana exporters have argued that the fungicide it commonly uses, Dithane, is classified in the least hazardous category by the Philippine Fertiliser and Pesticide Authority, but studies done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say it contains cancer-causing elements.

Plantations are discontinuous and patchy, and the planes used for the spraying are known to stray into the buffer zones around inhabited areas, violating rules specified in environmental compliance certificates issued to the companies.

Some 5,000 workers are directly dependent on the banana industry in Davao and dependent on jobs in the plantations as well as in packing, transport and retail.

Both parties now await a final decision by the Supreme Court in what is considered to be a landmark case that involves public health and welfare, according to Lia Esquillo, executive director of the Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) which helps the farmers in their protest against aerial spraying.

'If the courts decide in favor of the agribusiness corporations then that means profits are more important than public health,' she said.

Davao city officials, convinced that aerial spraying harms humans health and the environment, passed an ordinance last year banning the aerial spraying of pesticides. They instead encouraged banana growers to use ground spraying as it’s safer.

But banana growers, led by the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), Davao Fruits Corp. (DFC) and Lapanday Agricultural and Development Corp. (LAD) not only questioned the legality of the ordinance but also refused to comply. An immediate shift to ground spraying would cost banana companies P882 million (about 18 million dollars) in potential losses, they said.

This led to a legal tussle between small farmers and local officials and agribusiness companies, with both parties petitioning the Court of Appeals (CA).

The agribusiness companies managed to obtain from the CA a temporary injunction against the ban, allowing them to continue with aerial spraying, while the court examined the case.

Small farmers and city government officials elevated the case to the Supreme Court in July, questioning the injunction order.

In the meantime, agribusiness corporations have continued with aerial spraying.

Development workers, Davao City officials and technical experts have been been supporting the farmers by organising fora to inform the public about the dangers of pesticides and why aerial spraying should be banned. Some of them grouped together as Citizens against Aerial Spraying are camping in front of the CA building to pressure the justices.

A ruling on the constitutionality of a Davao City ordinance banning aerial spraying in banana plantations will come out on Jan. 25, 2009, according to a letter sent by CA executive judge Romulo Borja to the protestors camping outside the court since Nov. 10.

Esquillo said aerial spraying had to be banned because even if these pesticides are registered with the Fertiliser and Pesticide Authority, they still have ill effects on non-target organisms.

The apprehensions are not unfounded. Lynn Panganiban, head of the National Poison Management and Control Center at the University of the Phillippines, notes that the approved fungicides for use in banana plantations such as mancozeb, and chlorothalonil can cause asthma and are possibly carcinogenic.

'Scientific literature demonstrates the multi-systemic health effects of fungicides which can be debilitating,' Panganiban said.

© Inter Press Service (2008) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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