An environmental task force Sunday lauded the order issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) temporarily suspending the aerial spraying of pesticides in banana plantations in Mindanao.

The National Task Force Against Aerial Spraying (NTFAAS) claimed partial victory for the DENR order.

Earlier, the NTFAAS was accused by plantation owners and suppliers of pesticides of spreading lies about the alleged health risks, including deaths and ailments, posed by aerial spraying.

In the order, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza directed Environmental Management Bureau Director (EMB) Julian Amador "to coordinate with the industry to ensure temporary suspension of aerial spraying close to residential communities or, if not possible, provide adequate buffer zones to prevent drift of fungicides/pesticides."

Amador sent a memorandum last August 17 to all EMB regional directors to submit report of compliance on or before September 4, 2009.

"We thank Secretary Atienza for recognizing the farmers' plea for health and justice as they themselves told him, but we could not hide our disappointment because his directive fell short of protecting public health and the environment," said Jane Lynn Capacio of the agrarian reform and rural development group Kaisahan, a member of NTFAAS.

Four farmers belonging to the Mindanao-based Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (MAAS), along with several leaders of NTFAAS, spoke with Atienza last August 3 and urged him and the DENR to apply a precautionary principle and impose an outright ban on aerial spraying.

"While we consider the temporary suspension of aerial spraying as partial success stemming from the farmers' persistence, we find it not enough and ineffective in solving the documented menace of this hardly regulated practice of exterminating crop pests," Capacio added.

"Bakit pansamantalang pagpapatigil lang, Mr. Secretary? Alam na natin ngayon ang masamang epekto ng aerial spraying sa kalusugan at kalikasan, ano pa ba ang hinihintay natin?" MAAS president Cecilia Moran asked. ("Why only a temporary suspension, Mr. Secretary? We now know the adverse effects of aerial spraying to health and nature, what else are we waiting for?")

MAAS and NTFAAS wanted the ban to become permanent even as scientific data do not support the ear expressed by these organizations, all of which have been challenged by plantation owners and pesticide suppliers to prove their case scientifically before they speak.

"The DENR should immediately reassess the soundness of temporary suspension and instead impose a total ban on aerial spraying nationwide if it really means to uphold environmental protection, public health and human rights against any commercial logic, whether founded or not," said NTFAAS coordinator Rene Pineda.