Protesters Block Runway in Philippines to Stop Aerial Spraying

Hun­dreds of res­i­dents bar­ri­cad­ed the run­way of the com­mu­ni­ty air­port in Sural­lah town in South Cota­ba­to on Mon­day in protest of the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties of a banana plan­ta­tion com­pa­ny oper­at­ing in the area.

Around 300 pro­test­ers gath­ered at the Allah Val­ley Air­port in Sural­lah at around 4 a.m. and occu­pied a por­tion of the run­way in a bid to stop the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties of for­eign-backed Sum­ifru Philip­pines Cor­po­ra­tion.

The com­pa­ny, which oper­ates banana plan­ta­tions in Sural­lah and T’boli towns, had been using the air­port as base of its aer­i­al spray­ing oper­a­tions.

Omar Azarcon, coor­di­na­tor of the protest action, said they launched the mobi­liza­tion to pres­sure local gov­ern­ment lead­ers to deci­sive­ly put a stop to the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties of Sum­ifru.

He said the pro­test­ers are com­posed of parish­ioners from Sural­lah and oth­er areas with­in the Dio­cese of Mar­bel, which cov­ers the provinces of South Cota­ba­to, Sarangani and this city.

“We’re call­ing on the provin­cial gov­ern­ment of South Cota­ba­to and the munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments of areas affect­ed by the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties to pass ordi­nances that will total­ly ban them,” he said in a radio inter­view.

Cit­ing results of their recent fact-find­ing mis­sion in the affect­ed areas, Azarcon claimed that they have doc­u­ment­ed three deaths and numer­ous cas­es of var­i­ous ill­ness­es that were direct­ly caused by the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties.

He said the three fatal­i­ties came from com­mu­ni­ties sit­u­at­ed near the banana plan­ta­tions of Sum­ifru in T’boli town.

He said they found a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of res­i­dents who have been suf­fer­ing from var­i­ous ill­ness­es like asth­ma and con­tact der­mati­tis in the affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties.

“These were caused by her­bi­cides and fungi­cides sprayed by air­planes com­mis­sioned by Sum­ifru these past sev­er­al years,” Azarcon said.

Fr. Joy Peli­no, coor­di­na­tor of the Dio­cese of Marbel’s Social Action Cen­ter, said that aside from health haz­ards, the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties also pose seri­ous threats to the area’s envi­ron­ment.

He said the chem­i­cals sprayed by Sumifru’s air­planes could con­t­a­m­i­nate the Allah riv­er sys­tem, which tra­vers­es the provinces of South Cota­ba­to and Sul­tan Kudarat.

Peli­no said Allah River’s head­wa­ters are locat­ed in the munic­i­pal­i­ties of Lake Sebu and T’boli, where the banana plan­ta­tions are locat­ed.

Azarcon said they will sus­tain their protest actions until local offi­cials would act on the mat­ter.

The munic­i­pal gov­ern­ment of Sural­lah issued a five-day per­mit or until Novem­ber 23 for the protest actions.

“But we might extend our mobi­liza­tion if we will not get deci­sive actions from our offi­cials,” he said.

Sum­ifru offi­cials were not imme­di­ate­ly avail­able for com­ment.

Sources said the com­pa­ny already pulled out from the air­port on Sun­day the air­craft and chem­i­cals that it uses for the aer­i­al spray­ing activ­i­ties. (Min­daNews)