A broad coalition of farmers, banana growers, and workers based in the Davao Region have called on Congress to reject a bill that would make illegal aerial spraying of fungicide in banana plantations and the application of the popular pesticide dithane.

The group, called the 911 Movement-Save Our Sagingan (911-SOS) said the net effect of the House Bill 5573 filed by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and its counterpart bill, Senate Bill 3134, would be to annihilate the $720-million banana industry and threaten the country's rice industry as farmers working on 4.8 million hectares of land would be barred from applying the popular pesticide dithane.

Rice is the country's biggest crop and it comprises more than 20 percent of the total agricultural output.

Industry players claimed the lobby for a ban on aerial spraying and pesticides is backed by funding agencies in the European Union (EU) and other foreign institutions that may be protecting specific economic interests.

In a call on Speaker Prospero Nograles, 911-SOS members pleaded for a thorough discussion on the dire consequences of the ban, explaining that at the rate of three personnel per hectare for banana plantations, the ban on aerial spraying would affect 57,952 hectares and cause the loss of 173,856 jobs.

Last year, they told Nograles the banana export industry had an output of 3.2 million metric tons (MMT), adding local growers have a higher output per hectare than Ecuador, the world's leading banana exporter.

In backing their plea, 911-SOS leaders said aerial spraying of fungicides has not posed any risk to the lives of plantation workers, farmers and families living nearby since the crop dusters use the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) to reduce drift and thus avoid affecting adjacent communities.

For a 25-liter solution for aerial spraying of chlorothalonil and mancozep, 88.83 percent is water, 15.84 percent is mineral oil and only 1.33 percent is fungicide. Thus, each square meter of plantation gets only 0.001 milliliter of active fungicide, they argued.

Renante Bangoy, 911-SOS chairman, said HB 5573 and SB 3134 will cause untold economic injury to no less than 90,000 people in Panabo City who work in 30,000 hectares of banana plantations.

Each hectare provides one direct job and two indirect jobs, meaning 90,000 people would lose their livelihood on account of a ban that was imposed with little or no scientific basis.

With an average of three dependents each, the prohibition would directly affect 270,000 people.

Bangoy stressed that since 2007, when a Davao City ordinance banned aerial spraying, thousands of people have lost their livelihood and entire plantations were ruined.

He revealed the expansion of the ban to Davao del Norte and all over Mindanao would kill the multi-billion peso banana industry.

Betty Francia, a member of the Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA), said that the ban on the aerial application of the fungicides chlorothalonil and mancozep was spurred by reports on alleged health risks posed on farmers and banana plantation workers. Another grower, Frank Cinco, said the reports are grossly misleading.

Aerial spraying had been done in plantations located in Panabo, Kapalong, Davao del Norte and in Compostela Valley province for the past 32 years with no adverse effects on the workers, farmers and their families living in areas contiguous to the plantations, she added.