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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.

Photos from www.sarangani.gov.ph and www.cow-net.com

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).

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