Farm owners and workers asked the government on Sunday to rehabilitate more than 14,000 hectares of banana plantations in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley that a powerful typhoon ruined last December, which left tens of thousands of people homeless and out of jobs.
The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) asked President Aquino for an outlay of about P8 billion to finance the one-year rehabilitation of the farms planted with Cavendish bananas for exports.
“Fast rehabilitation of the banana farms could spur economic activity in Mindanao and help people rebuild their lives,” a PBGEA official said.
Hundreds of people were killed and injured when Typhoon Pablo, the worst to hit the area in more than 50 years, cut a path of destruction in the two provinces, which are mostly planted with bananas. It comprised about a fifth of the 80,000 hectares planted with bananas in Mindanao.
Bananas is one of the country’s top exports after pineapple. Damage to banana farms caused by the typhoon was estimated at P8 billion and the Department of Trade said it could pull down the total merchandise exports this year.
Party-list Rep. Fernando Hicap supported the quick rehabilitation of the farms but the big banana monopolies should be distributed to farm workers for free.
“Malacanang should pursue the rehabilitation of devastated farms. But that should not be in the interest of banana monopolies because that is unfair and unjust to the Filipino taxpaying public and to the banana farm workers,” Hicap said.
“There should be rehabilitation and the rehabilitated agricultural lands covered by banana plantations should awarded to farm workers for free,” he said.
Hicap identified the monopolies as the 300-hectare Comval Tropical Fruit Inc, the vast tracts of banana lands in Compostela operated by Sumitomo Fruits, Inc. of Japan, the 1,000-hectare farm operated by Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Societies, and the 14,000-hectare plantation in Davao City.
Hicap said the banana growers used the sad plight of farm workers to call on government o rehabilitate the farms, which is an insult to the intelligence and dignity of farm workers and landless peasants in the region.
by Julito G. Rada with Gigi Muñoz-David
Source: manilastandardtoday.com