Provincial board calls for the reconsideration of abaca harvest ban

The Cebu provincial board drafted a resolution appealing to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to reconsider the implementation of the Executive Order 502 banning the commercial use of abaca plant and its leaf sheaths.

PB member Carmiano Kintanar said the ban affects furniture makers and exporters using abaca as raw material.

According to Kintanar, the abaca plant, locally known as "umbak" or "bakbak", is one of those indigenous plants growing abundantly in the country.

He said that it is a raw material used in furniture-making and other finished products such as home and fashion accessories, paper, pulp and garment manufacturing industries.

With the issuance of EO 502 last month, Kintanar said the harvesting, gathering, buying, selling and mutilating of matured and young leaf sheaths of abaca plants for commercial purposes, are specific acts that are now banned and prohibited.

Members of the provincial board share the same observation with Kintanar citing the effects also to the small farmers relying on abaca gatherings as their only means of livelihood.

President Arroyo issued the EO 502 based on official findings that there is allegedly unabated harvesting of abaca leaf sheaths which threatens the source of fibers.

Such activities also aggravate further the spread of abaca viral diseases, particularly the abaca bunchy-top, abaca mosaic and the abaca bract, and other microorganisms.

The spread of this alleged viral disease, however, can be treated in an alternative measure especially designed for the purpose, consonant with the government's disease prevention and health protection programs, without necessarily sacrificing the interest of concerned business sectors.

The provincial board said that the continued ban and prohibition on abaca's commercial use will certainly create a negative impact on the furniture-making industry and such other industries in Cebu, as well as in the whole country whose finished products are largely dependent on abaca as their raw material.

"The furniture-making industry and other allied abaca-dependent industries especially in Cebu are mostly export-oriented, and as such, have been and are still one of the active contributors to the growth of the national economy," the resolution said.

The abaca plant, which is indigenous to the Philippines, is producing the natural fiber known worldwide as Manila Hemp.