A number of adults have also been diagnosed with more serious, terminal diseases such as cancer. Several more have died of various contracted diseases. A village officer, Leonardo Tigaw, testified that in the month of August alone, 5 people have died because of diarrhea and fever.  Michael Bakiran, 31, said that his mother constantly complained of the pesticide fumes and suspect that she died precisely because of this. “Her stomach became enlarged, and she became weak. The hospital diagnosed it as a ‘complicated disease’ and she died 2 weeks after.” Nanette Rodriguez, 37, narrates, “Just this month of July, 9 people died. Several people have already died and became sick before so we appealed to the manager of the plantation. But he said that they refuse to pay the hospital bills if our water caused the illnesses, and not the pesticides, even when hospital doctors say that our water supply is contaminated by the pesticides that seep into our soil. That’s also the reason why so many people get sick, and spend so much. Others don’t even reach the hospital alive.”  Apparently, constant deaths caused by chronic diseases ranging from simple to complicated have horrifyingly plagued the people for years. In fact, “Just yesterday” a villager testified, “a woman lost two of her children.”