My Mother-in-Law as One of the Survivors of Agri Chemicals in GENSAN

It has been our earnest prayer that God will pour out this blessings that we have waiting for in very long years. I think my husband was not yet born when my mother in law used to work in Agri Chemicals in GENSAN (Saging) Inc., way back 35 years ago. She was one of the banana workers who had sprayed pesticide into the warm, humid air to protect the trees from insects and rot.As the decades passed, the workers came to believe that the pesticide, called DBCP, had cost them their health. It was prodded by U.S. lawyers and thousands joined lawsuits alleging that the pesticide made them sterile where my mother in law's health was also affected.

U.S. law firms began suing in U.S. courts on behalf of workers in other countries — more than 50,000 plantation workers over 30 years in countries including the Philippines, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Ivory Coast. The defendants have been the manufacturers of DBCP — Dow and Shell — and the fruit companies that used it: Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita.

There had been several Government hearings revealed where Shell Chemical Co., then a subsidiary of Shell Oil Company, the primary makers of DBCP, had long known about its dangers. By the late 1990s, banana workers and attorneys were frustrated by their inability to get a case before a U.S. jury, with the potential for higher awards and, more important for some, a finding of wrongdoing by the companies that's why it has been continuously brought and fight on trial of the court until today.

My mother-in-law died last year so it will be my father-in-law who are going to receive the settlement payment for the survivor. We had been waiting patiently and continuously praying for these because we want to fulfill what my MIL wants to do with the money. Its worth more than 3 million pesos that's why she wants to buy a lot where we can build our church, and a house for her children where all of us can live in one place. She also wants to do business such as an eatery or carenderia, a store and an expansion for our internet cafe business. We will continue her legacy in helping many people most specially in sharing the good news about God. We all give back the glory and honor to God because He is the one who give these tremendous blessings. We know its nearly coming and we just wait patiently for it.