PCA-7 wants measures vs. deadly beetle enforced

The Regional Development Council of Central Visayas should encourage local governments to carry out a containment program against a deadly pest that had been threatening the $760-million coconut industry in the country.

This was the plan of the Philippine Coconut Authority-7, which disclosed that it would soon submit a resolution calling on the RDC to encourage LGUs for the adoption of a containment program against the coconut hispine beetle, or the Brontispa Longissima Gestro.

PCA-7 manager Deodiro Ravelo told The Freeman that the Brontispa is more destructive than the local beetle, known as cadang-cadang, which also threatened coconut plantations in the country.

The Brontispa beetle is endemic of Sulawesi, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea but it reached the Philippines in the early 2004 through the importation of ornamental palms where they propagate.

It is considered one of the most damaging pests of coconut and other palm species that also destroyed considerable coconut production in several countries of Southeast Asia and the Maldives.

Ravelo said that authorities in have recently found out that the beetle had started infiltrating ornamental palms along the Baywalk of Roxas Boulevard in Manila, and was also detected in plantations in Bukidnon and Zamboanga.

The Brontispa beetle feeds on young leaves, which then appear burned and scorched. It causes great damage to seedlings and mature coconut palms, kills the young spears and eventually the whole palm.

Ravelo said the pest has not yet affected the local coconut production but an infestation that becomes widespread has a great potential of damaging the overall output.

Authorities and farmers are already worried about the rising infestation of the Brontispa in some coconut and ornamental palm plantations in the country.

This prompted the PCA-7 to finalize a containment program, which it would soon endorsed to the RDC for implementation among LGUs in its jurisdiction. - Ferliza C. Contratista