LA TRINIDAD, Benguet ? Alarmed by the increase in the number of suicides in the province with the use of pesticides, Governor Nestor Fongwan has asked the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) to ban the sale of a commercial product found to have commonly poisoned the victims.

Fongwan recently wrote Norlito Gicana, FPA executive director, to ask for the withdrawal from Benguet of the herbicide ?before it causes more deaths among our people.?

Hospital records showed that the province had 20 recorded suicide cases since 2007 involving the product. Seventeen are dead while three survived.

From January to May this year alone, there were already 13 suicides, Fongwan said.

George Bilanggo, FPA director for the Cordillera and Ilocos region, provided provincial officials the list of the victims who drank the herbicide. Delmar Cariño, Inquirer Northern Luzon