Gov wants herbicide used for suicides out of Benguet market

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Governor Nestor Fongwan has asked the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) to pull out from the market a herbicide blamed for a number of suicides in the country’s vegetable-producing province. Fongwan said the situation in Benguet is already “alarming." For this year alone, there have been 13 suicide cases in which gramoxine was used, he said. Data provided by doctors, clinics and hospitals in Benguet and in Baguio City from year 2007 to 2008 showed that there were 17 people who died after taking the herbicide. Only three people were recorded to have who survived. Doctors and nurses who have attended to suicide victims say they are not sure if there is an antidote to counter the effects of the herbicide, according to the governor. “It is for these reasons that we earnestly appeal for the withdrawal of the product in Benguet before it causes more deaths among our people," Fongwan said in a letter this week to FPA executive director Norlito R. Gicana. The provincial government has organized a task force to conduct an investigation and studies and recommend measures to address the problem. Fongwan also directed town mayors to be on alert for the distribution of the herbicide, which he said is for institutional use only. Benguet, known as the country's vegetable bowl, also has to deal with illnesses among farmers frequently exposed to pesticides. - GMANews.TV