Campaign vs aerial spraying launched
By Desiree Caluza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 00:39:00 12/02/2008
Filed Under: Agriculture, Environmental pollution, Regional authorities
BAGUIO CITY – Mindanao-based women’s groups launched on Tuesday a campaign to drum up support for the movement against aerial spraying using chemicals in Mindanao farmlands.
During a conference on the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women, Norma Capuyan, a Bagobo leader, said the campaign was meant to prevent adverse effects of aerial spraying on the environment and health of residents.
Women tribal leaders discussed this during a two-day documentation project on the violence against indigenous women organized by the Innabuyog-Gabriela BAI (National Network of Indigenous Women’s Organization in the Philippines) and Asia’s Indigenous Women’s Network.
The women’s groups announced that they would elevate their petition to non-government organizations here and abroad to encourage the Philippine government and other countries to pressure multinational companies to stop aerial spraying and the massive use of pesticides.
Capuyan, who is also BAI Mindanao spokesperson, said boom spraying of pesticides was common in Mindanao where expansions of banana plantations by multinational companies are found.
“We have seen the ill effects of the chemicals on the health of the communities in banana plantations in Davao and General Santos cities. We want this practice to stop immediately before it’s too late. We are afraid that the expansion of banana plantations will bring more of this dreadful practice to the communities where health, environment and livelihood securities have already been threatened,” she said.
Capuyan said her group found during its medical missions in banana plantations in North Cotabato in February that the villagers exposed to chemicals had acute skin diseases.
Catharina Estavillo, secretary general of Amihan, said some women suffered aborted pregnancies and gave birth to children with deformities because of their exposure to chemicals and pesticides.
Vernie Yocogan-Diano, Innabuyog-Gabriela chair, said aerial spraying had long been a sensitive issue because the concerned residents were going against big multinational companies.
In Benguet, studies of local doctors showed that women in vegetable farmlands suffered from premature abortion due to chemical exposure.
The environment advocate Greenpeace said in a study released in April that nitrate from chemicals and pesticides in two vegetable-producing towns in Benguet had already crept into the water wells of communities thriving near the farms.
Daniel Ocampo, genetic engineer of the Project Clean Water campaign of Greenpeace, earlier said the nitrate pollution in artesian wells in agricultural areas of Buguias and Atok towns indicated an excess of nitrogen fertilizer usage in farming practices.
He said the pollution was alarming because the community had been using the water for drinking.
Capuyan said aerial spraying was not limited to the plantations because its droplets could extend to 25 kilometers outside the plantation.
“The pests which are being eliminated through aerial spraying just transfer to other villages outside the plantation. Pests which we strongly attribute to the banana plantation are attacking the indigenous varieties of bananas and other agricultural products of families living outside the plantation,” she said.
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