DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Banana trader and former Maguindanao town mayor Ibrahim "Toto" Paglas III succumbed to bacterial meningitis at a hospital here at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, leaving behind his flourishing multi-million-peso business in his hometown of Datu Paglas.

Paglas, 53, was having a medical check-up at the Davao Doctors' Hospital when he had a seizure.

The politician-turned-entrepreneur invested his vast family-owned land in Datu Paglas in the production of hybrid banana with the help of Israeli technology in 1993. His Paglas group of companies later diversified to other lucrative trading ventures.

Paglas, who helped transform the once-troubled and Moro rebel-infested town into a place where industriousness has been a byword, was a recipient of several local and international accolades, one of which is the Rotary Club's 10 Outstanding Young Men.

In his town, billboards of "Bawal ang Tamad Dito" (The Lazy are Not Welcomed Here) are displayed.

"We mourn his death at an early age. He could have still helped his poor Moro constituents through his business enterprises," said a fellow Maguindanaoan and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Assemblyman Odin Abdula.

"We will surely miss him," said his uncle, Mayor Norodin Matalam of Pagalungan, Maguindanao.

Paglas ran and lost in the 2002 ARMM gubernatorial race that made him decide to leave politics and concentrate on business by expanding his banana plantation venture toward the neighboring Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

Paglas is also a nephew of Hashim Salamat, the late chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.