Bad ‘pancit’ downs 108 in Lake Sebu ‘campaign rally’

EMERGENCY CARE | Lake Sebu Community Health Care Complex workers assist food poisoning victims who attended a political gathering on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of the Lake Sebu Municipal Information Office)

KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato, Phiippines — At least 108 people, many of them children, were hospitalized on Sunday due to suspected food poisoning after eating food given out during a political gathering in a remote village in Lake Sebu town in South Cotabato province.

Roberto Baggong, head of the Lake Sebu Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said on Monday that the victims experienced severe diarrhea and vomiting an hour after eating “pancit bihon” (noodle dish) at the noon event in Sitio Bayabas, Barangay Tasiman, located more than 10 kilometers from the town center and part of which was only accessible by foot.

Aywing Gadung, organizer and owner of the site where the event was held, said in radio interviews here on Monday that the gathering only involved her relatives and was not a campaign rally as claimed by the village chief.

She said they served pancit bihon during the event, in support of the candidacy for municipal councilor of her cousin Lea Lobong, the chair of the adjoining village of Lamfugon.

“She was the only one who attended the event. No other politician was there,” added Gadung. She acknowledged responsibility over the incident and promised to shoulder the hospital expenses of the victims.

Appropriate action

Baggong said 108 residents of Barangays Tasiman and Lamfugon were brought to the Lake Sebu Community Health Care Complex at the town center, where they underwent treatment for food poisoning symptoms.

Because of the remoteness of the area, the rescuers arrived only at around 2 p.m. on Sunday, and “most of the victims were already weak when we got to them,” Baggong said.

He said 57 of the victims were minors — 46 of them age 10 years old and below and 11 were above 11 years old — while the rest included a senior citizen and a pregnant woman. Ten of the victims were discharged as of midnight on Sunday.

Mayor Floro Gandam mobilized the local government’s resources to ensure that the patients would receive proper treatment and other necessary assistance, Baggong said.

He said they were still verifying details of the mass gathering amid claims of Tasiman Barangay Chair Joel Madlon that contrary to Gadung’s claim, the gathering was a campaign rally.

Madlon, in a radio interview, claimed that some of their “sitio” leaders reported that nearly 1,000 people attended the event after they were allegedly promised a payout of P500 per head.

“We’re looking into this incident and will make appropriate actions to ensure that it will not happen again,” Gandam said.

—ALLEN ESTABILLO