We, members of the Alternative Law Groups, Inc. (ALG) in Mindanao, express our disappointment with the Joint Pastoral Statement made by the Bishops of Davao, Digos, Tagum and Mati (DADITAMA) on the issue of Aerial Spraying.
The DADITAMA Bishops believe that there are no sufficient data to warrant total ban on aerial spraying, but at the same time indicated of the need to avoid future harmful effects in the use of fungicides. Conveniently, the statement chose to ignore the evidence of the harmful effects of aerial spraying practice as found by government agencies, local government units and civil society.
The Department of Health (DOH), a government agency on health issues and concerns, found that pesticide aerial spraying is harmful and recommends its ban. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR), an independent Constitutional body, found enough reason to recommend a ban on aerial spraying as it violates people's right to health and the environment. The LGUs of Davao City, Bukidnon and Cotabato sought to ban it through their respective ordinances. Local groups and international networks called for an immediate ban of this practice. Even their fellow Bishops in Luzon and Catholic Bishops worldwide found the issue as a moral one as the aerial spray practice infringes upon human health and dignity.
Amidst all these support for the aerial spray ban, our dear Bishops chose to side with the plantation owners and the interest of the banana industry to continue this debilitating practice of pesticide aerial spraying. We are puzzled with their concern with hard data, when the legal and scientific communities always cite Precautionary Principle in environmental laws to enact drastic measures to prevent harm. This principle states that whenever there are threats of serious and irreversible damage to the environment, lack of scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation. Banning aerial spraying is an adequate precautionary measure before degradation to people's health and environment becomes really irreversible and a serious issue.
But the DADITAMA Bishops should also look at the issue as a moral one as the Church always refers to morality as a sacred principle in its stand on issues, and not only on the evidence. Children going to school have to take cover so as not to be showered by the substances released from an aerial spraying plane. Families have to cover their food because of the drift reaching their homes. Farmers have to watch their crops destroyed as it wilts from contact with the substance coming from the planes. Women have to fetch from another source as the water from their wells after an aerial spray activity becomes tangy. And there are other stories of women and men suffering from itchiness, coughing and other health problems due to contact with the drift of aerial spraying. The stories of these simple people, while might not stand the scrutiny of science, are based on their own personal experience and show clear violation of their morality and human dignity.
As an alternative law group working in partnership with local communities, we seek your compassion to hear the voices in these communities. We appeal to your sense of mercy and morality and see if what they suffered are not violations of their dignity and well-being as humans. The communities near and living in the borders of these plantations only deserve the protection of the Church, which the Davao Bishops failed to provide. But in the end, the people themselves must be empowered to take action to protect their right to health and the environment. So help them God.
Balay Alternative Legal Advocates for the Development of Mindanaw (BALAOD Mindanaw)
Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN)
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan-Friends of the Earth (LRC-KSK-FOEI)
Tanggapan ng Katutubong Pilipino (PANLIPI)
Paglilingkod-Batas Pangkapatiran Foundation (PBPF)
Pilipina Legal Resources Center, Inc. (PLRC)
Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN)
LIA JASMIN M. ESQUILLO
Executive Director
Interface Development Interventions (IDIS)
082-2994552
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