Pest talks up in Capitol SP
If Mindanao has continued peace talks, no thanks to Muslim extremists, Iloilo now has pest talks no thanks as well to the Brontispa invasion here.
In fact, no less than Oscar Garin, administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has been requested by the Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) to appear and help shed light on said pest scare.
In a resolution passed by members of the 9th SP body, Administrator Garin's presence was called for in Tuesday's regular session. The PCA leads the nationwide awareness campaign as Western Visayas provinces brace for what has been decried as "impending invasion."
Board Member Mac Napulan (First District) in a privilege speech revealed the widening infestation problem dubbed as "within catastrophic proportion."
Reports stated that affected number of coconut trees has reached more than 100,000 24 provinces of the country.
"The sad part of this story is that, it has already attacked Iloilo Province .First seen to be exact last September 4, 2007 in the town of Cabatuan along the road going to the airport and has infested around 564 coconut trees to date," Napulan in his privilege speech said.Probably brought to our province by the ornamental Royal palms planted along Iloilo Airport highway."
The enemy, Napulan continued, is an alien insect called coconut leaf beetle scientifically known Brontispa Longissima Gestro.
According to Napulan the pest was "presumably" introduced to the country in early 2004 following the importation of ornamental plants.
Initial reports of infestation were along the famous Bay Walk strip of Roxas Boulevard in Manila . More were then spotted in young palms growing in Candelaria, Quezon, Bay, Laguna and San Vicente Lipa City and the entire stretch of Silang to Dasmariñas highway in Cavite .
In fact, Napulan's report continued, Boracay Island has been invaded and began to destroy planted palms in beachfron resort as well as coconuts growing in the island.
"Aklan is the 24th province in the country to be infested by Brontispa. Palms and coconuts in Boracay Island are in their different stages of infestation. Station 2's palms, coconuts are 90% damaged, Station 1 is 20% and Station 3 50%. Some 3,000-coconut trees along the beach in Boracay Island are estimated to be infested by Brontispa," grim scenario as bared by Napulan added.
"They feed on young coconut leaves,kill the young spears and prevent the palm from bearing fruits and eventually kills the entire tree," he continued while adding how "there is so much at stake."
"One in four hectares of the total land farmland is under threat and this means 324 million coconut trees could be destroyed.No less than 25 million persons directly or indirectly dependent on the industry also face a bleak future unless Brontispa infestation is controlled and eradicated."
The invasion as Napulan noted, is even worse than the threat posed by Muslim terrorists.
"In its heyday, the Abu sayyaf never threatened these many people.It is high time to declare war against this deleterious beetle.It is an enemy that is much fearsome, virulent and merciless than the Abu Sayyaf," the First District Board Member ended."The Brontispa Beetle is the new face of terror. The havoc that human terrorist can do is diminutive compared to what these pests can do."