Rebels target crop dusters

DAVAO CITY—Communist rebels said they would shoot down crop dusters spraying pesticides over banana plantations in northeastern Mindanao if plantation owners continued the practice.

The communist-led National Democratic Front (NDF) in the region gave the owners a final warning against aerial spraying, which has been blamed for diseases among residents of areas that are near plantations, said its spokesperson, Maria Malaya.

Malaya said growing concern about the effects of aerial spraying on the health of residents and plantation workers and the threat to the environment had prompted the rebels to act on the matter.

She said the plantation operators had already been warned against aerial spraying in December, but they refused to listen.

Malaya identified two multinational agriculture companies in the Caraga region which continue the aerial spraying of pesticides—Sumitomo Fruits (SumiFru) in Tagbina, Surigao del Sur province, and Del Monte Philippines in Cabadbaran and Tubay, Agusan del Norte province.

“They continue to use this, not considering the damage it causes people, plants and animals,” she said in a statement issued on Thursday.

NPA rebels will now shoot down aircraft being used in aerial spraying, Malaya said.

She said the communist movement was just trying to protect as many people from the ill-effects of aerial spraying. People, she said, had “acquired lung and skin diseases because of the chemicals that they cannot help but breathe.”

The pesticides “get on their skins,” she added.

Plants on which aerial spraying is used “are dying and no longer bear fruit,” the NDF spokesperson said.

“Sources of water for bathing and drinking water for animals have become hazardous to use because it is contaminated with toxic chemicals,” Malaya said, citing the toxic effects of aerial spray as proven by scientific researches.

She advised aircraft pilots employed by plantation owners to find other jobs if their employers would ignore the NDF warning. Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao