DepEd set to investigate Cagayan food poisoning

By Charlie Lagasca

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Education Secretary Armin Luistro has formed a panel to investigate the recent food poisoning incident in a public school here where two kindergarten pupils died and 42 others were hospitalized.

Luistro, however, clarified that the panel’s intention was not to fish out who is to blame for the incident at the Larion Bajo Elementary School but to prevent such food poisoning from happening again.

Luistro was here Wednesday, or a day after the incident, to personally look into the plight of the food poisoning victims still recovering in hospitals there.

He also extended his condolences to the families of the two fatalities.

“We will not be trying to find who is to blame here. Rather we will be more on reviewing our feeding procedures to ensure that what our pupils and students consume is safe and healthy,” Luistro was quoted as saying.

Luistro said the panel would also coordinate with health officials on how to improve the set-up of public school canteens to prevent similar incidents.

Undersecretary Alberto Muyot of the Department of Education’s legal and legislative concerns will reportedly head the probe panel.

Meanwhile, health authorities yesterday said the 42 other food poisoning victims, including three teachers, were already in stable condition.

The parents of the two fatalities, Eloisa Ballad and Jessica Mae Bangayan, both five-year-old kindergarten pupils, said they were considering filing charges of gross negligence against those found responsible for their children’s death.

Reports said the victims suddenly started vomiting and showed other signs of food poisoning after eating a local noodle dish. Teachers initially suspected that the clams used in the dish could be the culprit.

Superintendent Pedro Martirez, city police chief, however, said that upon investigation, traces of oxalic acid, a colorless salt-like bleaching agent used in cleaning marble tiles, were found in the dish.

Martirez said those who prepared the food could have mistaken the substance for iodized salt.