By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
LAOAG CITY—Owing to occurrence of bombing incidents and terrorist threats
around the country, the government now requires licenses to purchase potassium
nitrate.
This development affects mango growers as the said chemical is important to
induce more flowers for mango trees.
Potassium nitrate, however, is an active ingredient in manufacturing
improvised explosive devices (IEDs); thus, the license requirement to ensure
that the chemical will not land in terrorists’ hands.
Previously, anyone can buy potassium nitrate or even calcium nitrate in
farm supply stores. This, however, is no longer the case as the Philippine
National Police started regulating the sale of the said chemicals.
Even the chemicals’ sellers need to secure their own permits to sell them.
Appropriate charges and penalties await violators of this regulation, the
police said. They added that the legal charges will be “non-bailable.
In view of this, Ricardo Tolentino, president of the mango growers’
association in this northern part of Luzon said they made an appeal to local
authorities here if they could secure a license as an association to avoid adding
more burden to individual farmers.
Mr. Tolentino said mango growers here have become dependent on using
potassium nitrate in their mango plantations as it is more convenient for them
to use instead of the traditional “smoking” technique which take about 25 days
to induce the flowers of mango trees.
“In Ilocos Norte, I am the only one yet who have secured a license from [Camp]
Crame [PNP national headquarters]. Only the members of our association can
avail of it subject to monthly audit and monitoring from the PNP,” said Mr.
Tolentino.
The Ilocos region covering Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangasinan
is one of the country’s major exporters of quality mangoes to Hongkong, Japan
and other neighboring Southeast Asian nations. Hence, regulating the use of
potassium nitrate may affect the mango industry, he said citing mango growers
here are still recovering from previous losses due to typhoon and infestation
of fruit flies.
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