ALTERNATIVE LAW GROUPS, INC. (ALG) MINDANAO STATEMENT TO THE JOINT DADITAMA (Davao, Digos, Tagum and Mati) PASTORAL STATEMENT ON AERIAL SPRAYING

ALTERNATIVE LAW GROUPS, INC. (ALG) MINDANAO STATEMENT TO THE JOINT DADITAMA (Davao, Digos, Tagum and Mati) PASTORAL STATEMENT ON AERIAL SPRAYING

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.

These facts are incontrovertible. The Department of Health (DOH), after conducting a study on this, 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 peoples’ 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 the DADITAMA Bishops’ 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 DADITAMA 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 the environment becomes really irreversible and a serious issue.

 

But the DADITAMA Bishops should also look at the issue as a moral one, and not only on the evidence, as the Church always refers to morality as a sacred principle in its stand on issues. 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 water from another source as the water from their wells after an aerial spray activity becomes tangy. And there are other stories of women, men and children 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 but are recognized in law, are based on their own personal experience and show clear violation of their morality and human dignity.

 

As alternative law groups working in partnership with local communities, we seek the DADITAMA Bishops’ compassion to hear the voices in these communities. We appeal to their sense of mercy and morality and see if what the people experienced are not violations of their dignity and well-being as humans. The communities near and living in the borders of these plantations deserve the protection of the Church, which it failed to provide. But in the end, it is the people themselves who must be empowered to take action to assert their right to health and the environment. So help them God.

 

Alternative Law Groups, Inc (ALG) Mindanao

For more information, contact:

Atty. Raymond Q. Salas, (082) 298-4161

Door 1, #422 Champaca St., Juna Subd., Matina, Davao City