|
Group urges PRC to drop complaint vs doctors |
|
Sunstar Davao
|
|
Sunday, 01 August 2010 |
THE National Task Force Against Aerial Spraying (NTFAAS) called on the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) to drop the complaints filed against doctors who conducted a study on effects of aerial spray to public health.
“We call upon the Professional Regulatory Commission to act judiciously on the part of the complaint by business interest against public health servants whose primary duty under our Constitution is to uphold citizens’ right to health," NTFAAS head Rene Pineda said in a statement.
Dr. Romeo Quijano, a professor at the University of the Philippines in Manila and 10 other doctors from the Department of Health (DOH) and one engineer were subjects of the complaint for “alleged unethical conduct during the conduct of the health study.”
The study, which was conducted in 2006, found that 82 percent of the respondents from Sitio Camocaan in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur were exposed to aerially sprayed pesticides; 52 percent of whom exhibit symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning. Pesticide was found in the residents' blood samples and in air and soil samples in the community.
The doctors said in their affidavits that the health assessment was done with the knowledge of all stakeholders including Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) and with the consent of pre-selected residents.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
SCIENTIST HARASSMENT SUIT |
|
Press Release, National Task Force Against Aerial Spray
|
|
Sunday, 18 July 2010 |
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) strongly condemns the latest move by banana companies in the Philippines to harass health rights defenders in an attempt to derail the campaign to ban the aerial spraying of pesticides in Southern Philippines.
Last January 5, 2010, a complaint was filed with the regional office of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) against Dr. Romeo Quijano, a professor at the University of the Philippines Manila and president of the PAN Philippines, as well as 10 other doctors and one engineer. Two local officials who claimed to represent several residents of Sitio Kamukhaan (Camocaan) in the town of Hagonoy, Davao del Sur province complained against the alleged unethical conduct the committed by Dr. Quijano and doctors who conducted a scientific study commissioned by the government’s Department of Health (DOH) on the impact of aerial spraying of an adjacent banana plantation on the residents’ health.
The DOH study, conducted in 2006, found that 82 percent of respondents from Kamukhaan were indirectly exposed to aerially sprayed pesticides; 52 percent of whom exhibit symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning. It was used as a basis for the DOH to recommend in 2009 a ban on aerial spraying of pesticides. Earlier, the Davao City council passed a resolution to enact the ban, but banana companies led by the Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) opposed this in court, and the matter is now pending with the Supreme Court.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Calls growing to scrap aerial spraying of bananas in Philippines |
|
Dario Agnote, KYODO News Agency
|
|
Wednesday, 16 June 2010 |
|
DAVAO CITY, Philippines, June 16 Kyodo - The Philippine government is being forced to make a tough choice between its drive for export dollars and its responsibility to protect the public's health as public opposition to aerial spraying of pesticides continues to mount.
Anti-aerial pesticide spray campaigners want to enlist Japanese consumers in their campaign to permanently ban aerial spraying of pesticides on bananas, since 45 percent of Philippine bananas are exported to Japan.
''We want to reach out to Japanese consumers to help us in putting pressure on banana planters to abandon aerial spraying of pesticides,'' said Lia Jasmin Esquillo, executive director of the nongovernmental organization Interface Development Interventions.
''These companies know only the language of money. If their pockets are hurt they will stop,'' she said.
Esquillo is urging Japanese consumers to write letters to Japanese fruit and vegetable importer Sumifru Corp. and to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ''to force them to take action against (Philippine) banana imports which have been produced with aerial spraying.''
Green activists, including farmers, are calling for banana planters to abandon aerial spraying of fungicides on banana farms in the southern island of Mindanao after government-commissioned research highlighted a link between illness and pesticide use among farmers living in or near plantations.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Groups hail SC ruling on procedures for envi cases |
|
Sunstar Davao
|
|
Friday, 16 April 2010 |
DAVAO CITY - Various environmental groups in Davao City hailed the newly released guidelines formulated by the Supreme Court on the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases.
Released on Wednesday,the document is expected to hasten the resolution of environmental cases because under the procedures, the high court is expected to act on the petitions involving environmental cases within 60 days.
Lia Esquillo, IDIS Executive Director, lauded the move as a timely Earth Day gift from the Supreme Court.
Idis, or Interfaith Development Interventions, is among environmental groups that actively campaigning for the ban on aerial spraying as an agricultural practice in industrial plantations.
“With the new rules, more novel tools are now available for us to defend our environmental rights that have been routinely trampled upon by big corporations.”, she said.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
