BY BULATLAT
Posted 3:50 p.m., July 2, 2008
Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) representatives filed Tuesday a resolution calling on Congress to investigate the transport of 10,000kgs of the toxic pesticide Endosulfan in the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars.
Reps. Liza Largoza-Maza and Luz Ilagan filed House Resolution No. 646 titled “Resolution for the House of Representatives through the Committees on Oversight, Natural Resources, Trade and Industry and Transportation to Conduct an Investigation in Aid of Legislation on the Transport of Endosulfan in the Sunken MV Princess of the Stars Toward Legislating Policies on the Ban and/or Regulation of the Use and Transport of Toxic Chemicals and Pesticides and the Review of RA 6969.”
RA 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act provides for the monitoring and regulation of the importation, manufacture, transport, use and distribution of chemical substances which present unreasonable risk or injury to the health and environment.
Maza said, “Why such enormous amount of Endosulfan is being transported without the knowledge of concerned government regulatory bodies in a passenger vessel is something that we should all look into.”
The women’s partylist group also underscored the ill-effects of Endosulfan especially to women and children as the chemical specifically poses grave danger to the reproductive and nervous systems.
Maza also said that there is a need for pineapple producer Del Monte Philippines, Inc. to explain its continued use of Endosulfan despite the expiration of a two-year restriction imposed by the Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Pesticides Authority. “Has DMPI been using Endosulfan illegally and exposing surrounding communities to health risks and has the Department of Agriculture been remiss of its duties to update the restriction it has imposed on the use of Endosulfan? We need answers,” she said.(Bulatlat.com)
