DAVAO CITY– Close on the heels of the successful Trade Mission of Southern
Mindanao’s Jose Abad Santos-Glan-Sarangani (JAGS-CT) Cooperation Triangle to
Indonesia last September, a new Indonesian airline company has started serving the
Davao-Manado (Indonesia) route today boosting trade ties between the Philippines
and Indonesia, which are both under the development thrust of the East Asean Growth
Area (EAGA).
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Nearly 80 individuals, most of them schoolchildren, fell ill on Wednesday after they were exposed to toxic fumes from the banana plantation of Tadeco, which is owned by the Floirendos, in Dujali, Davao del Norte, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. Authorities said at least 30 of the children passed out after inhaling a chemical used to kill worms in banana plants, the paper said.
This incident, the latest in a string of chemical poisoning in the Philippines the past week, is sure to revive the debate in Davao on how banana plantations are using chemicals, particularly aerial spraying. This early, one environment group warned that what happened in Dujali could happen in Davao.
For months, the workers at a Davao del Norte banana plantation owned by Marsman-Drysdale, one of the largest agri-business companies in the country, were not paid their salaries. This plunged the workers? families into extreme conditions and indebtedness. The company also failed to remit the workers? SSS, Philhealth and Pag-IBIG payments. Desperate, the workers banded together, forcing the company to pay up. Davao Today staff writer Marilou M. Aguirre reports.
For more Davao Today stories and special reports on the problems being faced by workers in the banana plantations of Southern Mindanao, click here.
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Nelly and Federico Intise, a Davao City couple known for their work in the NGO community, disappeared last month without a trace. Davao Today contributor Gingging Avellanosa, a friend of Nelly?s, writes that anxious family and friends believe that the military took them.
Nelly and Federico Intise have been missing since late October. At right is their son Bayan’s painting of Nelly’s favorite slippers. (Contributed photos)
The independent digital film “Huling Baylan ng Buhi (The Last Priestess of Buhi)” by 21-year-old Davao filmmaker Sherad Anthony Sanchez won the top prizes, including best picture and best director, in this week’s Cinema One Originals competition in Manila. In an Inquirer story, Robbie Tan, the film producer who was one of the jurors, said “Huling Baylan” is ?a well-conceived symphony of sounds and images, pushing the language of cinema across new boundaries.?