Monday, December 11, 2006 Mayor to issue order on aerial spray By Ben O. Tesiorna
MAYOR Rodrigo Duterte intends to issue an executive order on aerial spraying if the City Council fails to act on it in time.
In his weekly television program Sunday, Duterte said the order would give regulating measures for banana plantations to follow, including the setting up of buffer zones between plantations and inhabited areas -- like houses and schools.
The order can even be as harsh as to require plantations to toe the line within two months or be stripped of their business permits.
But the mayor said he will give time for the council to pass an ordinance regulating aerial spraying.
He reminded City Councilor Mabel Acosta, who was hosting the television program, to make sure they act on the ordinance pending in the council.
While the mayor continued to rile at environmental groups, specifically the Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Maas), Duterte said he knows chemicals are harmful and that the best option for the city is to really go organic in the near future.
In the meantime, he said, the plantations will have to set up the buffer zones to ensure that they will not be dropping chemicals on people.
"You can no longer spray above houses, you do that I will cancel your permits," Duterte said.
The controversial report made by City Planning and Development Officer Mario Luis Jacinto, one of Duterte's trusted lieutenants, stressed on the need for a buffer zone.
In fact, it recommended a 50-meter buffer zone, much longer than the 30-meter buffer zone that are in the plantations' environmental clearance certificates (ECCs), a requirement that the plantations have been violating all these years. (With SAE)
