The Department of Health team under Dr. Allan Dionisio of the UP Poison Management and Control Center strongly denied suggestions that they undertook a health and environmental assessment of Sitio Camocaan in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur at the behest of the Pesticide Action Network of Dr. Romeo Quijano.
Quijano’s reports of sick and dying residents due to aerial spraying was reportedly the basis for the DOH study which was subsequently used by militant groups to rally public support for an aerial spray ban.
“We have nothing to do with Quijano’s group,” UP toxicologist Dr. Allan Dioniso declared before Hagonoy officials and residents in a “Public Inquiry” yesterday on their Camocaan study.
The denial came in the wake of vehement protests by Camocaan residents who found Quijano’s reports of sick and dying residents false and fabricated.
“It was produced mainly for fund-raising,” said barangay chairman Randy Buat who paraded before Dr. Dionisio and members of his study team all the “victims of pesticide poisoning” that Quijano and his daughter, Ilang-ilang, cited in their documentary “A Poisoned Village” which was shown in New Zealand and posted in the internet.
Among said victims are the Dulla twins whom Quijano reported to have died at childbirth due to pesticide poisoning.
Filed under: aerial spray
