Aerial spray of pesticides resumes as SC ruling hangs

DAVAO CITY – Further delay in the Supreme Court’s ruling over a city ordinance banning aerial pesticide spraying exposes more children to pesticide drifts as classes have started, environment groups said.

“On top of the usual lack of classrooms and teachers, schoolchildren near banana plantations endure an added risk to their health by inhaling pesticide drifts as classes start,” said Dagohoy Magaway, head of the group Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas).

He said a meeting with affected communities in February revealed that parents are increasingly getting worried about pesticide drifts, as spray planes resumed aerial spraying in the city’s agricultural districts of Wangan and Dacudao.

In 2007, the city council passed an ordinance banning aerial spray among banana plantations, but a strong lobby from banana growers and exporters belonging to the Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) put its implementation on hold.

Business groups questioned the constitutionality of the ordinance at the Court of Appeals (CA), which overturned a lower court decision in favor of PBGEA, and prompted the group Maas to elevate the case to the Supreme Court.

But until now, the Supreme Court has yet to issue its final ruling. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao