A TOWN TRIES TO COME TO TERMS WITH TRAGEDY
MABINI, BOHOL, March 11, 2005 (STAR) (AFP) Hysterical parents wept as they buried the bodies of schoolchildren who died after a tragic mass food-poisoning in this impoverished town yesterday.Ten white coffins adorned with paper flowers were carried one by one by mourners in the tiny chapel of Barangay San Jose to be given last rites before being lowered into a mass grave.
The 10 were among 30 San Jose children, aged seven to 13, who died Wednesday just hours after consuming caramelized cassava sweets bought from street vendors at the school gates.
President Arroyo flew by helicopter to the area from Cebu City to offer condolences to parents and ordered the release of relief funds.
She also ordered that some of the stricken children still recovering in ill-equipped medical facilities in Bohol be airlifted to better hospitals.
The dead children were transported back here and were met by residents of this small town still trying to come to terms with the tragedy.
The victims, from the tiny school of just 267, had to be rushed to hospitals in different areas of Bohol island because Mabini’s facilities were overrun.
Parents were hysterical as they cried for their deceased children.
"I love you so much my dear one, my dear one," cried Lorenza Nasas as the coffin of her son, Sherwin, 7, was brought into the chapel.
At the municipal hospital in nearby Talibon, meanwhile, 48 children from San Jose were slowly recovering. They were isolated in a wing of the packed hospital, with nurses and doctors closely observing them.
Lying in bed, eight-year-old victim Dominga Pelegrino appeared to be in shock, staring into space and constantly asking for her 11-year-old brother Pablito, one of two who died en route to the hospital.
"He did not make it," said elder sister Marlene, as she cradled her surviving sister in her arms.
"They remain agitated and weak but the vomiting and diarrhea appear to have stopped," hospital administrator Harold Gallego told AFP.
Cassava or manioc is a tropical food crop widely grown around the Asian region. In many impoverished Philippine towns, like Mabini, it is a substitute for rice, the staple food.
It is traditionally boiled, or processed as an ingredient for native cakes and delicacies in the Philippines. The most popular form among school children is deep-fried cassava coated with sugar.
Health experts say certain varieties of cassava contain a form of cyanide, and that if not prepared correctly, it could be dangerous to humans.
Health department officials in Manila yesterday said their initial findings indicated that the deaths were caused by "cyanide poisoning," citing the speed with which the children were stricken.
However they are also looking into the possibility that pesticides may have been accidentally mixed with the cassava.
Earlier, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said the teams were focusing on two theories: improper cooking of the cassava that had activated the cyanide content or pesticides that had been accidentally mixed into the root crop.
"This appears to be organophosphate poisoning, meaning that a component of an insecticide or pesticide contaminated the food. We are presuming it could have been in the process of preparation," added Gallego, citing the initial findings from the victims.
Health Department specialist Troy Gepte said that toxicologists had been dispatched to Bohol.
He cited the swift effect of the poison, saying "there were some children who immediately died within a few minutes," after ingesting the cassava.
The department was trying to provide antidotes for the survivors in the hospitals, Gepte said.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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