EDITORIAL - Health is wealth

The furor over Alberto's Pizza is similar to other states of agitation that invariably descend in the aftermath of some terrible thing happening, be it food poisoning or an accident involving an overloaded bus that lost its brakes.

And like the other states of agitation, they are bound to eventually die down. That is how it is in the Philippines.

Something happens and everybody gets jolted into action. And then everything returns to its normal state of complacency and neglect. Until the next incident. The Alberto's Pizza incident is just the latest in a long line of incidents involving people getting sick from what they have eaten. Not very long ago, there was that thing about a mall ice cream parlor. Before that, a popular Chinese restaurant got into hot water.

Of course, in a large city there has to be a very good number of places that cater to one of man's most passionate endeavors, which is to eat. Each of these places is a potential for disaster. That the ratio of disasters is in the public's favor is something to be thankful.

Maybe this favorable ratio reflects something positive in favor of the regulatory agencies that have supervisory and oversight powers on places to eat. Unfortunately, favorable ratios are still too much when it comes to health concerns.

As has often been said, our health is our only wealth. In other words, favorable ratios arising from fewer incidents in relation to the huge number of eating places is not good enough if even favorable ratios can be improved.

The task may be daunting, especially since a great chunk of the food industry involves what is described as the informal sector, "mosquito" eateries that descend on one place and then fly away at the end of the business day.

There is no ignoring the risks posed by this informal sector. But if the risk is at least confined to that sector, then a huge chunk of the anxious burden should be lifted from the shoulders the regulatory agencies and the eating public.

The government, while almost helpless against the informal sector, is not as helpless in making sure that those places that are registered are regularly monitored and made to comply with safety and health requirements.