Ana Luyong, 68, was being treated for poisoning, stress and heart-related problems at the intensive care unit of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital in Tagbilaran City, according to Yvette Matabalan, the Philippine Information Agency’s provincial manager.
Matabalan, in a telephone interview with The STAR, said hospital director Nenita Po told her Luyong "was probably under so much stress and pressure because of what happened."
Luyong’s relatives claimed some of her grandchildren were also poisoned by the deadly snack she had prepared. Authorities said she could be the subject of an investigation.
Senior police officer Ernesto Abueva said Victoria Hibiya, Luyong’s fellow vendor, was placed under police protection due to threats from angry parents.
"I have nothing to do with that," Hibiya said. "I also ate some of the cassava balls I sold, but nothing happened to me. Please help me."
The families of 25 children who died from eating the cassava snack prepared for a mass burial yesterday. About 90 others, most of them children between six and 13 years, remained in hospitals.
President Arroyo ordered officials to release funds to the families after hearing that some were too poor to afford wooden coffins for their children.
She met the families of the victims in the remote village of San Jose yesterday and ordered police and health authorities to find out what happened.
Mrs. Arroyo went to visit Luyong and 17 other patients at the Tagbilaran hospital after going to San Jose and the nearby villages of Ubay and Talibon. However, she was not able to see Luyong because of the latter’s condition.
Philip Fuderanan, a local government official in nearby Mabini town, said 22 of the dead would be buried in a mass grave.
Abueva said they had collected samples of vomit and leftover food and sent them to the Department of Health (DOH) for an analysis to determine the cause of the poisoning.
Half an hour later, many children began complaining of stomach aches. Some began vomiting and feeling dizzy, forcing the school to send them home.
Visminda Vallecera said there was complete chaos at a nearby clinic when she brought her younger brother who started vomiting and complained of a stomach ache.
"We were shocked to see the clinic packed with children who had similar complaints of stomach aches," she said. "Everybody was rushing. They were shouting for help and others were crying." — Aurea Calica