CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Police broke up a picket line of farmers protesting aerial dust cropping in banana farms in Davao and arrested several of the protesters.
The farmers, members of the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas), lay down on J. Borja Street to simulate death, paralyzing the movement of vehicles.
The protest action came after the Court of Appeals here declared as unconstitutional the Davao City ordinance that banned aerial spraying of chemicals in banana plantations.
The law took two years for city lawmakers to pass because of the intense debate between opponents of aerial spraying and the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA).
The decision, dated Jan. 9, trashed the earlier decision of the Regional Trial Court Branch 17 in Davao that upheld the ordinance’s validity and constitutionality.
“We find the trial court committed an error of judgment ... Thus we are constrained to strike down such measure as invalid and unconstitutional,” the 47-page decision said.
Rosita Bacalso, a member of Maas, questioned why it took so long for the CA justices to decide on the case.
She lamented how the justices ignored their basic right to live in a safe and healthy environment.
After the dispersal, police said they would also dismantle the farmers’ encampment. Maas members have encamped about 20 meters from the CA since November.
The CA decision came while the protestors were on their fifth day of fasting and silent protest in front of the CA. They said they have been hungry for justice since the CA issued decisions that all favored the PBGEA – the temporary restraining order and the writ of preliminary injunction that lapsed in November last year, or six months after it was issued.
The CA, however, asked for an extension that is to expire Jan. 26.
PBGEA said the ordinance was oppressive. The lower court, however, in upholding its validity, said the city government of Davao only exercised its inherent police power to protect the people.
Favoring the petition of PBGEA were justices Jane Aurora C. Lantion, Rodrigo F. Lim, Jr., Normandie B. Pizarro, and Michael P. Elbinias. The executive justice of CA’s Cagayan de Oro wing, Romulo V. Borja, dissented.
