21 students faint amid Cotabato campus activities

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Up to 21 students fainted one after another during an event on Tuesday night, August 11, at the campus of Sunshine College Inc. in Barangay Tamontaka 2 in the south of this city.

All were immediately brought to medical dispensaries by emergency responders for treatment

School officials and local executives told reporters on Wednesday that the incident disrupted the merry-making by students and their teachers, then part of their celebration of the founding anniversary of their school, which they started three days before.

Superstitious villagers in houses around the campus were quick to assert that the students were “possessed” by evil spirits disturbed by their noisy activities and the fireworks that capped off their three-day event, something that emergency responders and local executives brushed aside as pure superstition, virtually unbelievable.

Barangay officials and rescuers in the Cotabato City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) said it could be hunger, stress, or food poisoning, or dehydration that weakened the 21 students and made them dizzy.

All of them were returned to their houses by emergency responders under the office of Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao after having been provided with ample medical intervention,

Matabalao has ordered his subordinate-officials in the City Health Office and their CDRRMO and barangay officials in Tamontaka 2 to collaborate in trying to determine why the students fainted one after another amid their activities on their campus.