Food poisoning of 500 kids enrages Duterte

DAVAO CITY — Shoot them dead if they insist.

A fuming Mayor Rodrigo Duterte issued this order upon returning from a trip to Manila Wednesday night when he learned that over 500 schoolchildren were downed by expired imported candies sold by enterprising garbage collectors.

"Those caught (selling expired candies) will be charged, prosecuted and shot dead if they insist on doing so," he said.

Duterte, however, later clarified that his "shoot-to-kill" order was just a figure of speech to emphasize the seriousness of the problem.

"We could not allow such things to happen again. We have to protect the innocent children who are victimized by these unscrupulous traders and vendors who sell damaged products even if they know these are no longer fit for human consumption," he said.

Garbage collectors found the imported candies, with expiration dates from 1996 to 1999, at a dumpsite and sold them. The affected children bought them at only P1 to P2 apiece.

Three garbage collectors of the city’s environment and natural resources office, were arrested Wednesday night for the food poisoning incident. They were identified as Nelson Odlohan, Myrlen Batal and Morie Batal.

Duterte has ordered the police to confiscate the rest of the unsold expired candies.

Upon his arrival Wednesday night, Duterte, who is actually on an indefinite leave of absence, proceeded immediately to the Davao Medical Center where majority of the affected schoolchildren were treated mostly for vomiting, nausea and severe headache and stomach ache.

Vice Mayor Luis Bonguyan facilitated the treatment of the elementary pupils mostly from public schools in Barangays Bunawan, Sasa, Mintel, Tibung—co, Ma-a and Magallanes.

The regional health office was still conducting laboratory tests on the candy samples.