Lapid eyes class suit on children poisoning

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — Gov. Lito Lapid has taken the lead in uniting parents of at least 176 children who were apparently poisoned by a chocolate milk drink for the filing of a class suit against manufacturer Alaska Milk Corp. (AMC).

"We can not allow the incident to pass without pinning responsibility on the firm," said Lapid’s provincial administrator Benalfre Galang.

Over a thousand gradeschoolers from the Sto. Domingo elementary school in Minalin town were rushed to the Lingad Memorial Hospital here Monday last week after over 200 of them manifested symptoms of food poisoning. Doctors later noted that the affected children had all drunk Alaska chocolate milk drink in tetra packs supplied to them for recess as part of the feeding program of the Department of Education (DepEd).

While the children were allowed to go home on the same day with no report of serious cases, Galang said the provincial government has initiated the filing of actual, moral, and exemplary damages against AMC "to serve as warning to food manufacturers to be more careful."

But AMC officials have insisted that their products were "in order" when delivered to the DepEd. The milk products were bought by the department from funds provided by Sen. Franklin Drilon. The Senate president had issued a public apology for the incident and asked for an investigation.

"The provincial government is providing free legal services to the parents," said Galang, adding that those now being contacted by the provincial government are the parents of l76 of the victims who were noted to have vomited at the hospital as a result of poisoning.

"We will be ready to file the case next week," Galang also said.

The DepEd, however, has yet to come out with the findings of its investigation team amid reports that the expiry dates of some of the tetrapacks were tampered.

Minalin Mayor Edgardo Flores said he personally noted the tampering of the expiry date of Aug. 2001 which was laid over with the date Oct. 2002. He said that a "numbering machine" was apparently used for tampering.