Congress asked to probe Dutch lobby money vs aerial spraying

Congress should investigate persistent reports that lobby money from the Netherlands is behind the campaign being waged by a coalition of non-government organizations against the practice of aerial spraying in export banana plantations.
This was the statement of a ranking officer of the Associated Unions-Trade Unions Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) and spokesmen of at least two banana growers cooperatives which have come out openly against the move to stop aerial spraying. Aerial spraying is a decades-old practice of the industry to fight black sigatoka,  a dreaded fungus-borne banana disease which had reportedly wiped out several plantations in the country and abroad.
Jess Pagaran, ALU-TUCP vice president, said congressmen attending this Friday’s public hearing on proposals to stop aerial spraying should look into this disturbing report, and ascertain if it’s true so that the country can make its moves.
Pagaran earlier said ALU-TUCP took a stand on the issue after realizing that many of their union members will be affected adversely if aerial spraying against sigatoka will revert to manual.
He said 60 percent of ALU-TUCP members in the Davao and neighboring regions are working in banana plantations.
An earlier report said that the campaign against aerial spraying of low-dose fungicide is being waged by a coalition of non-government organizations who are all getting funding from the Netherlands-based CordAid International, one of Europe’s largest private-sector aid development agencies.
The report quoted Rosemarie Maranan of the Youth for a Strong Nation Movement (YSNM) of the Angeles University Foundation of Angeles City as saying “we initially believed in the validity of the anti-spray cause until we found documents at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) repeatedly assailing Dutch policies to undermine banana producers worldwide and their commitment to ertswhile Dutch colonies like Indonesia under the Lome Convention and Cotonou Agreement of 2004.”
The YSNM was founded by Professor Emmanuel Q. Yap, the former head of the Congressional Economic Research Unit and economic adviser to presidents Elpidio Quirino, Carlos P. Garcia and Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Maranan reportedly told leaders representing various unions in Southern Mindanao’s retail trade, transport and services industries in a forum last Saturday that “ the lobby is so powerful as indicated by the participation of four Manila bishops, one of whom heads the National Social Action Center which draws sizable funding from CordAid and their ascendancy over a number  of the country’s media networks like the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA.
Reynaldo A. Delgado, chair of DARBMUPCO, a banana cooperative in Carmen, Davao del Norte composed of agrarian report beneficiaries, said that those who entertain the proposal to stop aerial spraying including Catholic bishops “who are expected to be more discerning” should study their positions carefully as it might result in destroying the banana industry and affect the thousands of  small growers and their families.
Delgado said his cooperative will send some 600 men and women to rally behind the banana industry in today’s public hearing at the Apo View Hotel.
Victor Cartagenas, spokesman of HEARBCO, another banana cooperative of agrarian beneficiaries in Madaum, Tagum City, said “morag ginagisa kita niining mga Dutch sa atong kaugalingong mantika (it seems that we are being fried in our own lard). Tungod sa ilang sapi, gipaaway-away ta, kitang mga magtatanom og saging, ang mga nakadawat ug sapi, mga inosenteng Obispo ug mga NGO (Because of their money, we are pitted against each other – we, the banana farmers and the entire industry against those who got funding, clueless bishops and NGOs).
“Small banana growers like me do not exactly know how this Dutch lobby money works and why they seem to want to see the ruin of our banana industry,” Cartagenas said in Cebuano, adding that it is up to Congress and the government, with the vast resources they can muster, to get to the bottom of this lobby money.
He said banana growers know that Dutch interests are present in the export banana plantations in Indonesia’s Maluku Islands, specifically at Halmahera and Sumateira.
Cartagenas said his group will send at least 150 members to the mass actions in Davao City during the hearing to be conducted by congressmen.
Maranan also showed an item at the CBCP News alleging a “world call for a ban on aerial spraying in the country quoting NGOs in the Netherlands” which she says is a paradox as Netherlands hosts one of the largest aerial spraying companies in Europe, Broegard Cord of Holland.
“This company sprays everything and they are spraying all over Africa, “ Maranan said as she points out the fact that Netherlands controls a land area throughout the world that is 20 times larger than their land area.
“They are also one of the most brutal colonial powers in the world and deprived Indonesia of an educational system when they colonized the country,” Maranan said.
Pagaran earlier cautioned Manila prelates against further statements of support for the anti-spray ban as “they will be giving credence to the lies spread by IDIS, MAAS and Mr. Rene Pineda of Antipolo City who heads the National Task Force Against Aerial Spraying.”
“These Manila bishops are making our Church a symbol of Third World mendicancy instead of being our people’s instrument of emancipation from poverty, disease and hunger,” Pagaran said. [With PR from DevCom Davao]