Homicide raps filed in Bohol poisoning

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed charges of multiple homicide and frustrated multiple homicide due to reckless imprudence yesterday against the sexagenarian who prepared the pesticide-laced cassava sweets that killed 28 pupils and downed 105 others in Mabini, Bohol last March 9.

NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco said the case against 68-year-old Ana Luyong was filed with the Tagbilaran City prosecutor’s office.

He said the filing of the charges was delayed for two days because NBI probers still had to interview Luyong who was hospitalized due to a heart ailment but who is now out of the intensive care unit.

Luyong told the NBI that she was the only one who cooked the cassava sweets.

The NBI initially mulled charging her with murder but it found out that she had no motive and just mistook coumaphos, a chemical used in making insecticide or pesticide, as flour during the cooking.

The NBI and the health department both ruled out that cassava, which contains hydrocyanic acid, killed the children.