Davao farmers picket court for ruling in favor of aerial spraying

Sun.Star: CAGAYAN DE ORO - The controversy over the aerial spraying of pesticides that is raging in Davao City has finally arrived in Cagayan de Oro City. Outraged Davao farmers staged Thursday a 15-minute picket outside the Court of Appeals office along Julio Pacana Street in Cagayan de Oro to protest its decision granting a preliminary injunction to the ban on aerial spraying in banana plantations. "This is a temporary setback. We plan to bring the issue to the Supreme Court. Protest activities will also continue until the decision is lifted," said Mavic Hilario of the Davao-based Interface Development Interventions, Inc. Last January 28, the Court of Appeals 22nd Division ruled and granted the petition for injunction filed by the Davao-based Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters (PGBEA) and the Davao Fruits Corporation and Agricultural and Development Corporation. The banana growers filed the petition after a local court in Davao upheld the legality of a local ordinance passed by the Davao City Council on March 3, 2007, banning aerial spraying of pesticides in banana petitions. The ban is the most controversial environmental issue in Davao City for the past years. Green groups like Interface argued that aerial spraying of pesticides posed a major health hazard to the communities around the banana plantations. For its part, PBGEA said it would take them 15 years to switch from aerial to the much safer ground spraying. They said the ordinance would put to risk the operations of the banana plantations and would eventually result in massive worker layoffs. In its decision, the appellate court said PBGEA was able to establish that its right to do business was infringed by the city ordinance. "Aerial spraying is an internationally accepted good agricultural practice...that such practice is safe and cannot harm the environment and that sickness and deaths in the barangays near plantations are not tied to chemicals being used in aerial spraying," the court said. This drew outbursts of emotion from farmers who claimed that they were victims of the effects from aerial pesticide spraying. A number of them came all the way from Davao City to picket the Court of Appeals office in Julio Pacana Street. They were accompanied by sympathetic students of Xavier University and members of the Sonshine Philippines Movement. Former plantation worker Felixberto Batuhan, 43, said he went blind after working for many years in the banana plantation owned by Lapanday Agricultural and Development Corporation. And because he was a sub-contractual worker, Batuhan said Lapanday refused to pay for his medical bills. Using whatever money he can beg, Batuhan said he went to seek medical help but was told that the pesticides have permanently damaged his retina causing his permanent blindness. "Hilak gyud ko pag-abot sa balay kay bata pa kaayo ang mga anak nako, bag-o pa nanganak ang asawa ko (I cried terribly because my children are still very young, my wife just gave birth)," Felixberto said. He thought of filing a case against Lapanday but dissuaded by his friends and relatives because filing a case "require a lot of money." Batuhan said when he heard the decision that reversed the Davao ordinance, he did not hesitate to come to Cagayan de Oro with the help of NGO friends. He said he want Cagayan de Oro residents to see how aerial spraying can do so much damage to people exposed to it. "Makaluluoy ang mga pobre kay gi-paboran nila ang mga datu (Unfortunately for the poor, the rich is always favored)," Batuhan said. - Sun.Star