AERIAL SPRAYING LEGISLATION: JUST THE START

This September 26, 2006, Davao City’s Legislative Council will vote on a landmark measure that will affect the operations of Export Cavendish Banana Companies – the biggest agri-industry in Southern Mindanao.

How Davao City’s councilors will vote on the proposal to Ban Aerial Spraying in banana plantations located in the second and third districts will serve as an indicator on how serious the legislative body is in pursuing legislation that will directly affect an industry capable of indirectly “assisting” political candidates in next years electoral exercise.

Davao City’s involvement with the Banana industry goes a long way back. It is no secret that political careers in Southern Mindanao have been closely linked with the support – direct and indirect – of personalities behind the industry. The interests of the industry has always been implicitly defended by politicians through the years.

This protective stance of politicians is being tested inside the august halls of the Davao City’s Sanguniang Panglunsod. This test does not imply that politicians are beginning to steer away from protecting the interests of the biggest economic player in the region.

What is happening inside the session hall of Davao City’s legislative building indicates a sea change in how this industry is perceived by citizens groups, a change in perception that will directly affect political careers. A transformation that will go on until reforms in the industry are put in place.

It is very important to take note that the initiative to propose a ban on aerial spraying in Davao City did not come from members of the Council, but from citizens groups who were audacious enough to propose it.

It may be recalled during the previous council (2002- 2004), the banana industry was also subject to intensive scrutiny and intense public debate. The issue at that time was the rapid expansion of the Cavendish banana plantations at the watershed areas of Davao City. The proposal, by environmental groups; for a moratorium on plantation expansion at the city council died by default. The previous council took it up at the last session, right before the campaign period started. The proposal was stonewalled and obstructed in every other way some members of the council saw fit. They made it appear that the discussion was needless and just a waste of their time. Efforts to engage the local chief executive was met with indifference.

Today, the game has changed – drastically.

The mayor has made public his stand. He wants to see an ordinance banning aerial spraying in Davao City, with out the ordinance, he has publicly declared he will come out with an executive order banning the same.

The City council is now clearly divided into groups closely identified as against or for the ban on aerial spraying.

Move’s to discredit groups pushing for the ban is an exercise in futility. Propagandizing and name calling won’t do the job of making the whole issue go away OR highlighting the issue in dramatic form. Even the remote possibility of these groups closing shop and leaving the city won’t mean that the banana company’s merry ways of yesterday will and should continue.

Banana companies, placed on defensive positions once again, still use the same strategy in dealing with the issue. The usual sidestepping of the issue at hand and asking for support and endorsements from other government agencies will not serve the purpose.

An on going groundswell calling for reforms in the industry is now growing from many small farming communities in the region, directly affected by the industry.

It is imperative that the Banana Industry closely examined and made to reform its ways.

Inefficiencies within the industry need to be weeded out. Its methods of doing business and its inefficient production practices need to be brought to much higher efficiency levels compared to the present.

These reforms need to be done, since whole communities are made hostage to their operations. Their quality of life and their future - economic, social, physical and environmental - well being is directly affected by company operations.

The whole region has been made hostage to its whims. The regional economy is so dependent on the industry that a 15 to 25 per cent cut in export quota’s would mean a regional crisis like the Asian Financial Crisis. A collapse in the international banana market – some say an unlikely event, but not a remote possibility- would mean death to many small farming communities.

A slowdown in the international banana market would figuratively mean just a case of runny nose for these companies, while whole communities would end up under intensive care, this poor government cannot afford.

Davao City’s dependence on the banana industry ought to be properly examined and assessed. The call for a ban on aerial spraying is just a start.

The companies have resorted to using host communities as pawns in their game. Small farmers who have entered into growership contracts and depend on aerial spraying for crop protection feel threatened. They will be directly affected by the ban, while the companies can move to other places for their supply.

The concerns of these small farmers are valid and should be looked into.

The writer personally recalls an encounter with them three years ago. They vehemently objected to calls for a moratorium in the expansion of the plantations in their upland farming areas – “gusto pod mi maka tagam-tam sa kaharuhay sa kinabuhi nga gisaad sa plantasyon. Nakit namo nga nakatagam-tam ang uban niani nga mga saad. Wala ba diay kami katungod makasulay niana. Demokrasya man kaha ning Pilipinas” (We also want to taste the good life that the plantations have promised. We have seen that others are experiencing this promise now. Don’t we have the right to try the same? Isn’t the Philippines a Democracy?)

With the proposed ban on aerial spraying put in place, these small farmers have become reluctant pawns in a complex political game, which in reality is political black mail at its finest. Because these farmer had no real choices available at the start. Today, they still have no other choice.

Democracy is after all about being able to make a choice on ones own free will, without fear or compunction, without pressure or threat. Choices made freely, are choices made without worries or concerns about fall out.

Can members of Davao City’s legislature do the same? Or are they in the same bind as those small farmers. Voting on a measure, compelled by the interests of a few, and not of the larger public they are suppose to serve?

Is the chief executive of Davao City willing to wrest the economy from the hold of these large banana companies? Can the city government look into a future where dependency on the banana companies is reduced to 15% of the direct and indirect economic dependence on the banana industry?

These questions are indeed hard to ask, but these have to be brought out, so it can be discussed by the public at larg

Next: The Banana Supply Chain Inefficiencies
An examination of the methods of land acquisition, crop production and fruit purchase practiced by the banana companies