Food poison downs 68 pupils in Christmas party

APALIT, Pampanga — Some 68 grade schoolers were rushed to three hospitals the other night after they were believed to have been poisoned by the food they earlier ate during a Christmas party at the San Vicente elementary school here.

The pupils, belonging to the first to fourth grades in the school, attended their party at about 4:30 p.m. last Friday and were served spaghetti in styropore packs, fried chicken, and Zesto brand fruit juice drink in tetrapacks. At about 7 p.m., the children started to complain of severe pain in the abdomen and began to vomit.

Mayor Tirso Lacanilao said the parents rushed their children to three local hospitals where they were diagnosed for poisoning.

"We don’t know exactly what poisoned them. The food they ate were served by someone who has been vending food in the school for many years and this is the first time this happened in my 52 years here," school principal Crisanta Lopez told The Star.

Lacanilao said that he has already ordered an investigation into the poisoning incident as he issued promissory notes to the management of the Yap, Ascom, and Lim hospitals here for the cost of treatment of the poisoned victims. "The municipal hall is closed on weekends so I can’t issue funds to help the family of the victims in expenses," he said, noting that the victims mostly belong to poor families.

Lopez said that as of late afternoon yesterday, about half of the 68 victims remained with dextrose in the hospitals, as she stressed that doctors have pronounced all of them out of danger.

Lopez said that the pupils nevertheless found nothing wrong with the food they ate. "What happened could have been the result of immediately encasing the newly cooked spaghetti in styropore packs," she said.

Last April, some 200 pupils were also poisoned in an elementary school in Minalin after partaking of Alaska milk in tetrapacks donated by Sen. Franklin Drilon. Later, however, investigators from the Bureau of Food and Drugs said that the milk was not spoilt. — Ding Cervantes