DAVAO CITY — The city government, on orders of Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte, has formed a group to arrest persons found violating the city?s garbage disposal program.
Duterte said he wanted a sustained cleanup of wastes around the city to give Dabawenyos a healthy environment.
City Environment and Natural Resources chief Ann Silvoza said the city?s ?Basura Patrol? has been strengthened with the formation of the anti-littering team.
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The Social Welfare and Development department has amended the guidelines for the issuance of permits to travel abroad for minors. It says this would simplify and shorten application and issuance…
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Environmentalists denounce the continued aerial spraying of pesticides in banana plantations in Davao City and Southern Mindanao. They note the havoc wrought by aerial pesticide use, among them diseases and an increasingly imbalanced ecosystem.
By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY — The air would smell of alquitran (tar) and the leaves of malunggay (horse radish tree) would turn into what looked like beans.
A woman from Panabo thus described what happened to her plants after the aerial spraying of a nearby banana plantation.
?I did not believe her at first,? said Josephine Quiamzon, vice-chairperson of the environmental group Panaghoy sa Kinaiyahan. ?Until I saw malunggay leaves turned into what looked like monggo seeds when they fell to the ground and wilted,? she said.
During the Earth Day celebrations last week, environmentalist groups here called on government to ban the aerial spraying of pesticides, which has become a common practice among banana plantations here, according to the environment group Interface Development Interventions Inc. (IDIS).