Residents of sitio Calvary Hills in barangay Apas who want to evict two cellsite towers as health hazards asked anew the Cebu City Council to push for the revocation of permits issued to Globe Telecom and Sun Cellular.
They said the permits were granted without public consultation in violation of the Local Government Code and the city zoning ordinance.
“Thus, we the residents who are still alive, will take all legal actions necessary to finally cause the eviction of these cell sites,” they said in a press statement.
On Wednesday, about 100 residents met with barangay and health officials for a dialog and turned over a July 11 Apas barangay resolution requesting the removal and relocation of the two cell sites.
They turned over the resolution to Councilor Lea Japson, head of the health committee, who went there to look into their complaints.
Three personnel from the DOH national office also showed up and conducted “radiation frequency measurement” in the area at 3 p.m. Results were not available yet yesterday.
“While it may be true that the radiation level is low in the area, constant exposure to radiation is making a lot of people sick. Their illness came out after 14 years of exposure,” Apas barangay chairman Ramil Ayuman said
At the end of the dialog, Dr. Porfonio Lapa, a resident of Calvary Hills read the group’s statement.
“It’s useless to argue about our apprehensions (about health),” he said. “The focus has changed.
We questions the legality of the permits. Those cell sites should not be allowed in residential areas.”
Agnette Peralta, director of the DOH Bureau of Health Devices and Technology, told the City Council during a June 18 public hearing that radio frequency radiation from cellsites is not conclusively proven to cause cancer. She said medical studies have so far shown that exposure to radiation increases thermal heat.
Peralta said it’s even more possible to get cancer from constant use of cellular phones because these devices are brought closer to the brain.
But Peralta said it’s better to conduct a radiation frequency measurement test to verify the complaints of the residents.
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