Kamukhaan was not the wasteland that it is
now. As village elders wistfully recall, it was once the picture of perfect
prime, a place so rich in natural resources people never grew hungry. Trees
and vegetation were abundant, and the seas were loaded with marine life.
The villagers who either fished or grew crops for a living always had more
than enough to feed their families and sustain quite a comfortable lifestyle.
The land where the banana plantation now stands originally belonged to
the descendants of the Buloy family, part of the Manobo tribe, who rented
the property to the Americans during the American Occupation. Diego Buloy,
71, the only living member of the Buloy family says that, “They promised
to raise cattle in it, instead they cheated us and we had never been able
to recover it.” The vast acreage is currently being used for a banana
plantation by the GADECO company, which from the beginning promised prosperity,
a “banana dreamland” that would alter the lives of the people. At present,
virtually no trace of their past life remains to be seen. All that’s left
is barren land, a contaminated sea, and 700 sick and impoverished people
breathing in poisoned air.
Since the plantation’s expansion in the
early 1980’s, the people of Kamukhaan have had to endure aerial spraying
of pesticides, which takes place as often as 2-3 times a month. Pesticides,
which the company uses to ensure for themselves pest-free, export quality
bananas, are sprayed by an airplane, which sweeps through the plantation
and their entire village. Every time a spraying occurs, the villagers smell
strong and odorous fumes, which cannot be escaped from, even in the shelter
of their own homes. Their eyes sting painfully and their skin itches. Most
of them experience feelings of suffocation, weakness and nausea. Alona
Tabarlong, 31, elaborates, “Children playing in the street come in, coughing
and complaining that their eyes hurt. The airplane passes our streets,
and even when it’s far away, the pesticide fumes still reaches inside our
homes.” Another villager claims that during aerial spraying, he sometimes
gets sprinkled by pesticides and itchy and painful skin lesions promptly
appear.
