VOL. 10 ISSUE 129• FRIDAY-SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29-30, 2017
P 15.00 • 20 PAGES
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PLASTICS ALL OVER. A young resident walks over a garbage-filled pool of water at a coastal community in Brgy. 23-C Isla Verde, Davao City on Thursday. Environmental group Greenpeace has ranked the Philippines as the “third-worst polluter into the world’s oceans” behind China and Indonesia in its recent study. Lean Daval Jr.
MIXED FEELINGS HB 5085 triggers opposition & support from banana industry By Angie SAveron
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indanao banana farmers are on a nationwide tour to drum up support for the passage of House Bill 5085, otherwise known as the Agribusiness Ventures Arrangements in Agrarian Reform Lands Act if passed i to law. The move comes as the bill faces strong opposition from banana growers who said the proposed law would dampen the investment climate for agribusiness in the country. But Rolando Torintera, manager of Davao Fruits Ba-
nana Growers Agrarian Reform Cooperative, assured banana growing multinational companies that “the AVA bill will not actually threaten the agribusiness as it will open a more participative environment where farmers are given more safeguards in securing their basic rights as farmers.” “It merely establishes a balanced relationship between the agrarian reform beneficiaries and the company,” Torintera added. House Bill 5085 is being deliberated in two committees at the House of Repre-
sentatives. Torintera noted that most of the committee members are not from banana-growing areas such as Davao Region, thus the need to drum up public support. According to a draft of the proposed bill, it is an “entrepreneurial collaboration between ARBs and private investors in the implementation of an agriculturally-related business venture involving lands distributed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).” Lawyer Irvin Sagarino, of the Initiatives for Dialogue
and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services that is helping Toritera’s group, claimed that most of the existing contracts between the farmers and the companies were prepared solely by the banana producers. “The companies sell the fertilizers and other inputs for the land and will buy the products of the farmers as well. The prices of the products however often remain low while the prices of the inputs are solely controlled by the company,” Sagarino said.
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