Philippine authorities yesterday launched a criminal investigation after at least 27 schoolchildren died in a mass food-poisoning in the central island of Bohol.
Blood and food samples and traces from a cooking oil container were sent to Manila for analysis after the tragedy, blamed on cassava sweets sold outside the children's school.
A special investigating team, including doctors and toxicologists, was meeting in Bohol and the Justice Department's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was looking into the case.
A health official said the sweets may have been infected by pesticide, rather than cyanide, which can occur in cassava if it is not prepared correctly.
"Based on the signs and symptoms, it points to organophosphate poisoning," said regional health assistant director Susana Madarieta, adding that the sick children did not show signs of cyanide poisoning.
At least 27 children died and 103 others, mostly young people, were hospitalized on Wednesday after eating caramelized cassava sweets bought from street vendors at the gates of the San Jose Elementary School in this remote, impoverished town.
The deaths and illnesses of so many children, aged seven to 13, has traumatized this small town of about 27,000 people which was ill-prepared to deal with so many sick and dying.
NBI district officer Renato Mandawe said in a radio interview that the agency had already spoken to some of the parents and was waiting to interview the surviving children.
The investigators are also considering autopsies of some of the deceased even though many were already laid to rest in a mass burial on Thursday.
"We will document this for possible prosecution," Mandawe said, stressing they could file charges of "possible negligence, reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and physical injuries."
"But our investigation is not yet finished so we cannot determine the appropriate crime," he added.
Two street vendors were identified as having sold food to the children before they became ill. One vendor is in hospital herself after consuming some of her own snacks while the other is under NBI custody to protect her from possible revenge attacks.
Madarieta said it was still unclear how pesticides could have infected the cassava, suggesting it may have happened during the preparation process or when farmer sprayed trees growing above the tubers.
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 cereal.
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.
Education Secretary Florencio Abad said in a radio interview that he would order restrictions on schoolchildren buying food from street vendors, saying they should use school canteens instead.
But he conceded that San Jose Elementary School did not have a canteen for its 267 students and that the two vendors had been selling food to the children for years without incident.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS