Brontispa Infestation Now Affects 10 Southern Leyte Towns

April 13,2010
Brontispa Infestation Now Affects 10 Municipalities Of Southern Leyte
By Quirico M.Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-Brontispa Longgissima or coconut leaflets infestation has now affected 10 municipalities of this province, as one of the 5 provinces infested with the pestering disease damaging around a total of 600,000 coconut trees in the whole region 8(Leyte and Samar).
This was the disclosure of PCA agriculturist Manuel Sembrano during the recent Sangguniang Panlalawigan session held at the Provincial Capitol here.However, he did not elaborate and chose not to mention the names of affected municipalities. According to Sembrano, only Biliran province not affected by the CLB as of the month of March of the current year.
He claimed that presently some coconut trees in 10 municipalities are now infested with the disease including some MaasinCity’s barangays.Like Lunas, Cansirong, Baugo, Pansaan (Lowe and Upper), Nonok Norte, Nonok Sur, San Agustin, Pinaskohan and Hinapo Gamay.
Marina Gador of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPAG) told the august body that they have conducted actual survey and ocular inspection in the upper barangays of Maasin on the reported infestation of the coconut farms from 8 coco farmers in brgy.Lunas.
She said based on their findings the insect pests were feeding and damaged the unopened coco leaflets, ages from 3 to 5 years old. About 300 non-bearing and 5 bearing-trees were infested.
In her discussion with Lunas Barangay Chairman Teofilo Tenio the latter revealed that an NGO has distributed 5,000 seed nuts by a grant to coco farmers in their place as its dispersal program last May 2009.
Tenio informed Gador that when the seed nuts were already planted it dried up after several weeks, particularly the unopened leaflets. When they opened it they saw insects feeding on it.
OPAG has suspected that the germinated nuts as planting materials have been infected with brontispa longgissima when it was brought to Lunas.
Another barangays of Cansirong and Baugo that were also recipients of the NGO’s 5,000 coconut seedlings were likewise infested with the disease. The rest of the abovementioned barangays, it was learned, were also recipients of the same planting materials from the City Agriculture Office sometime in April 2009.
All of the coco seedlings distributed in Maasin’s barangays, Sembrano said, came from coco nurseries somewhere in Bato and Matalom, Leyte.
OPAG’s Gador further informed the SP members that her office was conducting information drive on CLB (coco leaflets brontispa) infestation at brgy.San Rafael. It was attended by 6 Barangay Chairmen and some coco farmers.
She said in that occasion they have distributed 100 pieces masks and 100 pieces gloves to ABC Chairman of Maasin City Danilio Dueñas.These are for the use of the farmers when needed during spraying of the pests.
However, the suspicion that the dreaded coco disease was brought by the coco seeds distributed by the Rural Development Institute funded by the Canadian organization, an NGO earlier mentioned, was not utterly accepted by the PCA agriculturist Sembrano.
According to Sembrano during the distribution of the coco seeds at the aforesaid barangays, he was with the company. “We did not see any pest”, he said. “The seedlings were normal at the time it was planted by the recipients. It was presumed that the infestation came out in the middle of December 2009 because during the month of January 2010 unopened leaflets of the coconuts were already infested”.
He said he reported their findings to the PCA central office. Mostly affected coconuts were the non-bearing trees that were newly-planted.Sembrano clarified that infested coconuts were from the NGO and that of the farmers themselves.
He said that in barangays Pinaskohan and San Agustin, PCA has sprayed the 100 infested coconuts with chemical right after it was discovered.
Asked by the body what kind of chemical that is appropriate for spraying the coconut disease, Sembrano said the Scientists and experts at the Philippine Coconut Authority will be the one to determine the kind of chemical to use and not just of any kind. “Because some chemicals if not properly use can harm the environment”, he stressed.

It Started In Bicol
SP Roberto Lagumbay, Chairman Committee on Health and Sanitation, informed that his friend in Hinunangan who was living in Bicol the previous years revealed to him that they found it difficult to eradicate the brontispa infestation in that place..
He implied there’s a great probability that the insect pests that now affecting 10 municipalities including Maasin’s 9 barangays has it source in Bicol. This hypothesis seems to have an indication of truism since the coconut trees grown at Allen Terminal in Northern Samar was the first in region 8 to be affected by the pestering coco disease sometime in June 2008, the PCA agriculturist intimated.
Allen Terminal is where the barge would dock to ferry passenger buses coming from Mindanao, Leyte and Samar towards Matnog Terminal in the Bicol region. The later terminal would also ferry bus passengers, cars and trucks from Manila and Bicol towards Allen that would be going here in region 8 and to Mindanao.
PCA agriculturist Sembrano earlier told the Sangguniang Panlalawigan members that coco leaflets pests can be carried by any type of vehicle.Logically, since the infestation was first discovered in Bicol, there’s high percentage of belief that vehicles coming from the Bicol area, either cars, passenger buses or cargo freight trucks/vans have unknowingly transported the insect pests as it cruised from Matnog towards Allen From there, the insect pests infestation has spread to different provinces in Samar island destroying hundreds and thousands of coconut trees until it reached the province of Southern Leyte.
Sembrano divulged that there are now 600,000 coconut trees in the whole of region 8 infested by the insect pests.
Another presumption is that the coconut seeds distributed by an NGO sourced from the coco nurseries somewhere in Bato and Matalom, Leyte, allegedly have as its mother coconuts coming from the Bicol region.
Other information that could also cause the spread of the destructive pests is that passenger vehicles or other trucks from Bato or Matalom would in some occasions travel towards the upland barangays of Maasin, as what Sembrano has enunciated during the recent SP session.
SP Albert Esclamado, Chairman Committee on Tourism, and Lagumbay both considered the infestation as a “very serious matter” that would have an adverse effect to the livelihood of an estimated 80% constituents in this province who are relying on coconut products.
Besides the requested funds of P480, 000.00 by the Dept. of Agriculture and the PCA from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Vice-Governor Miguel Maamo, 11, emphasized that the Provincial Board is more than willing to support whatever action/measure would be taken by the two concerned government agencies to arrest the problem on brontispa infestation.

Recommendations For Infestation Control
1) To take immediate action and control measures on the affected barangays;
2) Massive information campaign in all barangays of Maasin City and all municipalities of Southern Leyte in coordination with the LGUs, DA line agencies, NGOs and thru the print and broadcast media;
3)To enact a resolution prohibiting the movement, transfer and carrying of plants/palms seedlings including fronds from infested to non-infested areas within Maasin City and all municipalities of the province;
4) To establish checkpoints with the assistance of AFP and PNP;
5) To strictly implement quarantine measures citing Bureau Of Plant Industry’s Special Order No. 03
Series of 2005;
6) To provide the requested funds in the earliest possible time for the materialization/realization of the abovementioned recommendations.
Obviously, the aforesaid recommendations are likewise applicable to other provinces in region 8 to control and to prevent the spread of the consumptive dreaded coconut pests.(Quirico M.Gorpido,Jr.)