(2005-03-13)
Order! Immediate uprooting of white cassava.
Twenty-seven pupils from San Jose Elementary School in Mabini town, aged 7 to 13, died while 102 others were rushed to various hospitals due to food poisoning last Wednesday.
Anna Timaan Luyong, 67, the vendor who sold the sugarcoated maruya made of cassava admitted last night that she cooked the "white variety" of cassava which authorities earlier pronounced as poisonous due to its high cyanide content.
Luyong admitted having cooked the white cassava, but without knowing anything about the cyanide content.
"Mao 'toy una nakong luto ug balanghoy," (it was my first time to cook cassava), Luyong admitted when she was visited by Gov. Erico Aumentado and Mabini Mayor Stephen Rances at the ICU of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Regional Hospital yesterday.
The 67-year-old vendor narrated that it was the first time she harvested and cooked cassava since she used to sell kamote and banana-cue. The cassava which she cooked added to her day's cooked stuffs to be sold to the pupils during recess time last Wednesday.
The admission of the vendor gave the latest twist to the extensive investigation conducted by health and pesticide authorities who were ordered by President Arroyo to make an exhautive probe on the food poisoning incident.
The President visited the victims at the hospitals last Friday during a two-hour visit here together with Education Secretary Butch Abad.
Rodrigo Malcampo, manager of Philstarch based in Carmen, confirmed to the Chronicle yesterday that the white cassava contains some 330 to 360 ppm (particle per million) of cyanide, which is hazardous to health since the tolerable cyanide content for human consumption should not go beyond 120 ppm. He said that what is being planted is the yellow cassava, which cyanide content is only between 60 to 70 ppm.
Aumentado who personally interviewed the vendor at her hospital bed yesterday afternoon told the Chronicle that he ordered Mayor Rances to effect the immediate uprooting of the white cassava which presumably have some crops left at the plantation of Ms. Luyong in barangay Paraiso, Mabini town.
The latest count on the death toll (as of yesterday) was 27 fatalities, the latest of whom was 13-year old Jenelyn Valente, at the Gallares Regional Hospital.
Thirteen poisoned graders died at the LG Cutamora Community Hospital, in Ubay town; seven at the Don Emilio Del Valle Hospital (Ubay), two at the Garcia Provincial Hospital in Talibon, three at the Gov. Gallares Regional Hospital, this city while two died on the spot in barangay San Jose, Mabini town last Wednesday.
The fatalities were identified as Edu Fernandez, 7; Michelle Gambuta, 8; Juanito Hinampas, 9; Jumar Lomotos, 13; Wilfredo Luyong, 7; Sammy Montilla, 11; Ana Rose Salaum, 9; Kevin Salaum, 9; Cerila Sanchez, 13; Julieta Sanchez, 11; Vine Mae Cual, Aiza Tuyogon, 9; Riza Valleser, 9;
Diana Rose Daigdigan, 7; Jason Dupit, 7; John Ronie Linggas, 7; Melvin Luyong, 6; Nilo Marinito, 7; Chiovy Ochavillo, 8; Estrella Salaum, 12; Pablita Peligrino, 12; Justin Salaum, 11; Judy Ann Busbus, 8; Leomar Luyong, 7; Jenelyn Valentem, 13; Sherwin Asas, 7 and Isidore Noel Vallente, 8.
Thirty patients were admitted at the Don Emilio Del Valle Hospital, 48 at Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital; 17 at the Gallares Regional Hospital and eight at the LG Cutamora Hospital.
In a check made by the Chronicle last night, it was learned that only two patients remained at the Don Emilio del Valle Hospital while the rest were discharged last Friday afternoon. Some 20 patients are still recuperating at the Garcia Memorial Prov'l Hospital in Talibon.
KIDS' KILLER RAT KILLER?
Medical and root crops experts and local farmers have agreed on this: cassava is not the slayer of the pupils of San Jose Elementary School in Mabini.
And the police, as of presstime, have one culprit in mind: a brand of insecticide, known as Racumen, which was recovered Wednesday at the kitchen of Anna “Aning” Luyong, the vendor at San Jose Elementary School whose cassava-made snack poisoned about a half of the school’s population.
Luyong sold the snack food, locally known as maruya, last Wednesday in time of the school’s recess period at 9:40 a.m., and 10 minutes later, pupils who ate her food started vomiting and screamed for extreme stomach pains and headaches, eventually resulting to the death of 27 pupils and the illness of 103 others.
As to how the deadly Racumen found its way into the maruya, authorities are yet to establish a trail.
According to Senior Police Officer 4 Ernesto Abueva of the Mabini police station, the box of Racumen was recovered at the Luyong’s kitchen in which she cooked the snack food.
“We have a strong belief that this could have been the cause of the food contamination,” Abueva said of the box of Racumen, which bluish granules found scattered round the place, adding they had sent granule samples to the PNP’s Crime Laboratory.
“Even without the result of the chemical test yet, we strongly suspect it (Racumen) as source of the poison,” Abueva said, whose police team picked up Luyong last Wednesday for questioning but instead found her being poisoned, too, by the same food.
Racumen is said to be containing organophosphate compounds (OPs), which are also found in all pesticides and insecticides.
According to a medical website, samples of OPs are insecticides (malathion, parathion, diazinon, fenthion, dichlorvos, chlorpyrifos), nerve gases (soman, sarin, tabun, VX), opthalmic agents (echothiophate, isoflurophate), and antihelminitics and herbicides.
Dr. Harold Gallego, Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital chief based in Talibon, told GMA-7 Friday that his hospital has pinpointed organophosphate as the cause of the poisoning.
“The symptoms of the patients show it was organophosphate that poisoned the students,” Gallego said.
“As to how the chemical mixed into the food, that’s what we want to find out,” Gallego said.
The belief that it was not cassava that triggered the mass death has been boosted by a statement of an out-of-school youth.
Fifteen-year-old Elizalde Vallente, according to his father Narciso, happened to pass by the SJES Wednesday morning and bought banana-q from Luyong.
The father Narciso said his son fell ill and started vomiting shortly before midnoon, prompting him to rush his son to the Garcia Hospital.
A group of crop experts met on Friday by the Chronicle at barangay Paraiso where they gathered cassava leftover being used by Aning said they are not inclined to believe that the crop caused the food poisoning.
Dr. Julie Tan of the Philippine Rootcrop Research and Training Center based at the Leyte State University (LSU) said her team of experts would release next week their test on the cassava leftover used by Luyong.
During a chance interview with the Chronicle, Tan allayed fears that cassava displays poison.
Dr. Marcelo Quevedo, a crop physiologist based at the LSU, said there has been no record in Philippine history that a person is poisoned of cassava.
According to Allan Loreto, spokesperson of the PhilRootcrops Center, cassava could only be a carrier of a deadly chemical.
“The reaction after the cassava intake was too fast,” Loreto said. “It was very unusual.”
The crop experts said they would take soil sample and cassava tubers of the same variety used by Luyong to the LSU for testing.
In a statement, provincial agriculturist Liza Quirog expressed sadness that the Bohol’s cassava industry might collapse due to media scare.
“Cassava is not the culprit, it’s the organophosphate,” Quirog said, saying she has not heard of anybody poisoned by the precious crop.
“I’m sad because our province is pushing for the cassava as a good commodity for marginal farmers to raise income and earn even more by processing it into snack foods,” Quirog said.
She lamented that Cebu and Manila media are harping on cassava as the cause of the poisoning, adding “they are creating a hype.”
Palm Oil, Incorporated, in the meantime, has dismissed reports that pesticides used in a palm oil plantation near the farm of Luyong has contaminated her cassava farm.
In a statement, Palm Inc said the palm oil plantation is about one kilometer away from Luyong’s cassava farm.
Residents of San Jose interviewed by the Chronicle Friday said they would never believe it was cassava that took away the life of the kids.
Nestor Yana, 45, said the worst the can happen to a person due to cassava poisoning is having a feeling of being drunk, which he said can be treated by taking in coconut grate with a lot of sugar on it.
Frances Piquero, Poblacion 1 councilor, told the Chronicle that it is highly improbable that cassava was the cause of poisoning.
“When I was 22 y ears old, I was poisoned of cassava but the effect was only that of being sober,” Piquero said in the dialect.
Another long-time cassava farmer, Eleutero Torefel, who started planting the root crop since in the 1950s said he is yet to hear of a person who died of cassava poisoning in their barangay.
“Bisan pa sa nahitabo, mokaon gihapon ko’g bulanghoy (Even with what had happened, I would still eat cassava),” Torefel said, adding cassava has helped his family survived amid droughts in the past.
3 THEORIES
Three theories relative to deadly “maruya” or “buchi-buchi” cooked out of the cassava tuber are seriously being taken into account.
Of the three assumptions, the pesticide contamination appears to be most likely the cause of the poisoning.
The other two assumptions are the hydro cyanide acid that naturally contained in cassava and the organo-phosphate.
Vice-Gov. Julius Caesar Herrera who assumed as governor last week issued the same caution calling all sectors concerned to refrain from issuing statements relative to poison causes until such time the findings from the experts will come out. The call was prompted to quell the rumor on cassava as the culprit, saying that this might further damage the cassava industry in the province, said Herrera, who chairs agriculture committee of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.
The vice-governor personally visited San Jose last Thursday after his official speaking engagement in Cebu city and called a meeting Friday of the heads of offices involved in the extending of assistance to the victims’ families to apprise him on updates and plight of the victims in the hospitals.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) led by provincial director lawyer Renato Mandawe told a press conference yesterday at the People’s Mansion that they are now trying to match the specimen obtained from the autopsied corpse with the samplings of pesticide called 1-2-3.
He hinted that if the specimen of the autopsied body would match with that of the pesticide (1-2-3) contained in a plastic container found during the ocular inspection of the house where the cassava was prepared and cooked, then the case is solved.
Mandawe said that he asked NBI chemist to conduct examination on the specimen taken out of the frying pan used in the cooking of cassava. He said that 1-2-3 appears like a flour. “Now after the exhumation, our doctor and our chemist visited the area (house of Ana, “Aning” Luyong 68). The box or plastic containing the 1-2-3 pesticide they bought from Agrivet Talibon town and the sample of the same pesticide are in their possession.
Dr. Roy Gepte, epidemiologist from Manila-based Department of Health (DOH) said that the allegation that organo-phosphate contamination from oil palm may cause the poisoning is “unlikely.”
Mandawe narrated that the maruya prepared and sold by Victoria Hibaya, one of the alleged vendors, has not affected the pupils of San Jose elementary School.
Mabini Mayor Stephen Rances was informed that those Maruya sold by Hibaya has gone through with the usual cassava preparation including extraction of its liquid prior to cooking.
But those “Maruya” prepared by Luyong, 68, massively poisoned the pupils. Luyong, who has also eaten the maruya is still recuperating at the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital until yesterday.
The municipal government of Mabini through the Sangguniang Bayan session yesterday presided by Vice-Mayor Ester Tabigue approved three measures for more assistance to the victims.
Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during her visit in said barangay last Thursday declared Mabini under the state of calamity.
The town officials were authorized to utilize its annual 5% calamity fund from its budget to help the victims.
The council also approved two separate Resolutions requesting the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to release the fund assistance of P90,000 to shoulder the coffins and embalming expenses.
The provincial government has already extended financial assistance and in kind in the total amount of P452,775.
Victims received financial assistance courtesy of the provincial government (P5,000 each); PCSO (P5,000 each); DSWD-regional office (P3,000 each); DepEd-region (P4,000 each); Congressman Eladio Jala (1,000 each); Congressman Edgar M. Chatto (a total of P10,000) and Boy Scout of the Philippines, P5,000 each family of the victims.
Five of the victims who were insured received P12,000 each from BSP, Ae Damalerio, Chatto’s political aide, said.
QUICK ACTION
With the distance notwithstanding, Gov. Aumentado, who was attending a Workshop on “Eco-budget Asia: Implementing Eco-budget in Asian Local Governments”in Bologna, Italy, instructed by long distance call Atty. Tomas Abapo, Jr., Provincial Administrator to immediately organize the team to deliver the needed supplies of medicine and financial assistance to the families of the victims.
The team, composed of Primitiva Ontong, Executive Assistant on Fiscal Matters, Engr. Edwin Vallejos, Provincial Government General Services Officer, Mrs. Constancia Tunacao, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer and Engr. Emmanuel Caberte, Excutive Assistant, Governor’s Office, has distributed a total amount of P400,000 worth of assistance, P150,000 of which were in the form of medicines, oxygen , rice and sardines.
According to Ontong, they distributed P5,000 each family of the casualties and P1,000 for each of the victims being confined at the Don Emilio del Valle Hospital and LG Cutamora Community Hospital in Ubay, Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital in Talibon, Bohol and GCGMH.
Ontong, who were accompanied by Vallejos, a native of Mabini, Caberte, Tunacao and three other DSWD employees, Coleta Barimbao, Rosemarie Salazar and Clavel Saycon, also gave one sack of rice for the family of each the 27 casualties while the remaining 24 of the budgeted 50 sacks of rice to watchers of the patients and other volunteer workers who accompanied the patients when they were rushed to the hospitals immediately after the incident.
SPECIAL PROBE TEAM
Together with the instructions to extend the necessary assistance to the victims, Gov. Aumentado has also ordered the immediate organization of an Special Investigation team to conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation on the circumstances behind the mass poisoning incident, which is first of its magnitude in the history of the province of Bohol.
In a memorandum, the following have been designated to the team, Atty. Renato D. Mandawe, head, Tagbilaran office of the National Bureau of Investigation; Kag. Concepcion O. Lim, Chairperson, Health Services Committee of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan; Dr. Reymoses A. Cabagnot, MD, MPH, Provincial Health Officer; Dir. Sancho Buscano Bernales, PNP-Bohol and Engr. Emmanuel C. Caberte, Executive Assistant, Office of the Governor.
PALM OIL
There are two oil palm grower in San Jose, Mabini, Bohol, which are nearest to the cassava farm of Ana Luyong. The farm of Merlito Vallecera and Lydia Bernardo.
Vallecera's 12-hectare oil palm farm is about one kilometer away from Luyong's farm. It is located on the hill. Between his farm and Luyong is a rice field and a coconut farm.
Bernardo's oil palm farm, which has an area of about 5 hectares, is about three kilometers from Luyong's cassava farm. Before reaching Luyong's place, one has to pass through a road and a creek.
Vallecera has grown palm oil since 2001. He said he has not used pesticides in the farm. He sprayed herbicide once in 2001 when the palm trees were still small to get rid of the weed. He said: "Dili gayud mosaka ang tubig sa ilang uma ni Luyong, kay mas ubos man ang basakan."
Eugenio Valiente, a non oil palm grower, whose house is located in front of the rice field said. "Imposible nga gikan sa oil palm farm tungod sa distancia, unya naa pay basakan, unya mosaka pa usa moabot sa ila ka Luyong. Sa tinuoray nagluto pa mig balanhoy adtong Huwebes ug gikaon namo uban sa membro sa media, unya way nahitabo."
SOURCE: The Bohol Chronicle
With reports from: Rick Obedencio, Nick Sendrijas, Danny Reyes, Atoy Cosap and Mike Ortega Ligalig