An environmentalist lawyer, who is assigned by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Iloilo chapter to assist the city government in prosecuting violators of environmental laws, cited the disappearing cycle of natural predators as one major setback in the fight against the spread of Dengue fever.
Atty. Daniel Dinopol said that natural predators in the barangays such as frogs, insects and specifically spiders, are fast disappearing. These could have helped in the battle against Dengue.
Dinopol said the friendly insects and spiders are part of the natural environmental cycle that kill the Dengue-carrying mosquitoes, especially in stagnant and water clogged areas. The spiders spun its web to trap the flying mosquitoes while frogs and other insects prey on the mosquito larvae as their food.
Lately however, the spiders have become a gambling commodity while young and old people bet and use the spiders to fight each other. This practice has substantially killed the natural predators, Dinopol said.
The lawyer said the situation is further aggravated by the unrestricted use of pesticide that also kills spiders and other environment-friendly insects.
Dinopol suggested to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture to take steps to regulate the killings of these friendly insects especially the spiders.
Dinopol said the IBP Iloilo chapter has trained enforcement agents of the city environment and natural resources office on how to go about and conduct the process of filing charges at the city prosecutor’s office and eventually at the court. (PNA)
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