Guidelines on Travel Clearance for Minors Amended
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…
News Analysis: No Real Shortage in Oil Supply But Speculation Drives Global Prices Up
News analysis from Ibon: There is no shortage in the global oil supply but intense speculation is again increasing international oil prices. The unjustified oil price increases in the world…
In Many Davao Villages, Poison Pours from the Sky
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).
Campaign to Protect Mindanao Children Gains Ground
DAVAO CITY ? Local chief executives renewed their commitment to the ?Child-Friendly Movement: Accelerated Efforts to Reduce Disparities in Southern Philippines? during the program?s formal launch on April 20 with…
Groups Hit Military?s Red-Baiting, Warrant Vs. Luque
DAVAO CITY ? The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Southern Mindanao said Monday it was strongly behind Alvin Luque, the group?s former secretary-general here who is believed to be in hiding now, and vowed to continue fighting what it called as the ?Arroyo regime?s political repression.?
?We decry the fact that under the current regime defending the limited democratic rights of the people and fighting for a just cause are being defined as crimes,? says Ariel Casilao, the acting secretary-general of Bayan in Southern Mindanao.
Bayan said it saw the decision by a local court, which upheld the state?s arguments and ordered Luque?s arrest, as part of the calibrated and systematic attack against critics of the Arroyo regime.