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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 34 October 7 - 13, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Issue No. 34 October 7 - 13, 2001 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Chemical
Warfare Already in the Philippines, If the United States really wants to stop the threat of chemical warfare – a potential danger which cropped up in the US mainland following the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington – it must send back home one of its giant corporations, Monsanto. This chemical company has a history of chemical and biological warfare which, according to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, is again rearing its ugly head on the Philippines’ crop production all in the name of profit. BY
ANNE MARIE HERNANDEZ
Monsanto, the American corporation which has been the object of protest for using genetic engineering in crop production worldwide including the Philippines, has a history of bio-chemical warfare. The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement in the Philippines) revealed this over the weekend even as it chided President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for seeking the help of the Bush administration in the fight against biological warfare when in fact, the peasant group said, such threat is already in the Philippines. Rafael Mariano, chairman of KMP, said that Monsanto, the giant US-based chemical company engaged in food production and trade has been in the country posing chemical threats to the country’s crop production through the use of the controversial genetic engineering. "President Macapagal-Arroyo should be extra-cautious in seeking US help against biological warfare considering that the US is more capable and has a history of manufacturing, storing and using biological weapons itself with the help of US-based chemical companies, like Monsanto, which is now in the country," the peasant leader, who also chairs the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), said. Mariano maintained that Monsanto's development as a chemical company is intimately linked to war. During World War II, he said, the demand for industrial chemicals generated new technologies for weapons of mass destruction. Among chemical companies which made us of new technologies was Monsanto which, when the war ended, redirected its industries towards the domestic market with enormous profit. Agent Orange "The US-based Monsanto was one of the major producers of Agent Orange, the military name for the herbicides used by US troops to clear jungles in Vietnam,” Mariano said. “It is a combination of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D phenoxy herbicides." He said that of the seven companies implicated in a lawsuit filed by American veterans of the Vietnam War, Monsanto had to pay nearly half of the $180 million settlement because its version of Agent Orange had the highest levels of dioxin. Monsanto is the same chemical company conducting tests in the country on genetically engineered corn which is being opposed by peasants. The company has also met resistance in other countries in Europe and Asia due to similar experiments involving other crops. War means business Meanwhile, KMP also accused the US government of pushing the so-called war without borders to rake in billions in armament sales. Only the crisis-ridden US government would benefit from the war as it could rake in "super-profits" through arms trade particularly through its military-industrial complex. Mariano said that last year alone the United States earned at least $15.2 billion from the sale of weapons, cornering about 44 percent of the total global arms trade. Data gathered by the KMP showed that topping the list of the US arms buyers are Saudi Arabia with $11 billion worth of purchases. The rest were Egypt, Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Mariano also expressed alarm over the use of biochemicals in military warfare. But contrary to earlier reports pointing solely to the al-Quida headed by Osama bin Laden as capable of launching biochemical warfare, Mariano maintained that the United States has in fact more capability of wreaking global havoc through biotechnology where it enjoys monopoly. "The US itself has the capability and control of this biotechnology and monopoly of the arms race," Mariano said. He warned that the potential of biotechnology for military use is inevitable through the weaponization of bacteria and viruses. "Biowarfare does not require sophisticated bio-technologies, but that the mushrooming of biotech would increase the effectiveness of bio-weapons and that it would be next to impossible to monitor the institutions and scientists capable of developing such weapons," the KMP chair said. In fact, he said, this was the reason why the US army convened a two-day workshop on the future military implications of biotechnology in May 1996. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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