Banana insecticide fumes down 30 students in Davao

The students were having their flag ceremony around 7:30 am when about 30 students suddenly collapsed after inhaling “Mocap.”

You can go to the Bayer site here and find that Mocap is both “Toxic” and “Dangerous for the Environment” and contains the active ingredient ethoprop.

This site says enthoprop “is a carcinogen”, “a suspected neurotoxicant”, and is “more hazardous than most chemicals in seven out of ten ranking systems.”

TADECO is an acronym for Tagum Development Corporation, one of the largest banana plantations in the Philippines. A Google search indicates it is owned by the family of Davao del Norte Congressman Antonio Floirendo, who is one of the Top Ten Richest Congressmen, who also maintains a residence in Forbes Park, Makati.

This may be out of date, but here is a map and other information on major banana plantations in southeastern Mindanao from this site.

You need to read it in context, but Walden Bello recounts that in 1979 “TADECO used Filipino troops to eject 700 families from lands adjacent to its plantation.” There’s more to that story, however, than I’m capable of understanding at the moment.

The recent incident at the Tanglaw Elementary School in Braulio Dujali, Davao del Norte province seems to be just a tiny scene from a late act in an enormous play.