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[Del Rosario, a doctor, said one of the by-products of coconut wine fermentation was methanol, which can cause blindness and death. Some manufacturers keep the methanol in, because it means greater volume and more profit, he added.]

As far as I can tell, mere fermentation doesn’t produce enough methanol to make someone blind or seriously ill. It’s the distillation process that, unless explicit provision is made for removing the methanol, causes problems. I have heard that some moonshine manufacturers, out of sheer stupidity, add methanol to their brew to increase profits. A little methanol will give someone a hangover. A lot can blind or kill. Enough amateurs who don’t know what they’re doing manage to produce poisonous grog that kills to make headlines just about every single year.

I didn’t know that about Methanol.
I’m sorry to hear about the 11 dead and other made ill.
I have good memories of my short experience in Manila and Clark Naval Base years ago. They were such hard and organized workers. At least the ones I saw.

This was near the time (1984) Margaret Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang negotiated a plan to hand Hong Kong back to China after that 99 year lease ran out in 1997.
There was much excitement and much worry among the merchants in downtown Hong Kong. A HUGE area of downtown.

It may start out as palm wine, but Lambanog isn’t a wine. It’s an 80+ proof liquor distilled from palm wine. Basically, Pinoy moonshine. Some of it might be good, but not what I tried.