Authorities find expired food items still sold at Kidapawan port

KIDAPAWAN CITY – Food and pastries being sold by many vendors at the city’s overland terminal were found to have been expired “years ago,” a city official said.

Psalmer Bernalte, chair of the city’s disaster risk reduction and management council, said officials inspecting stalls and other food establishments at the busy terminal here on Tuesday were horrified to find that many vendors were selling food and pastries, which had expired about five years ago.

“How can these vendors sell food and pastry products that were already five years expired based on the labels?” Bernalte asked.

As immediate reaction, he said Mayor Joseph Evangelista ordered vendors to pull out the expired items from their inventory.

Among those ordered pulled out were products manufactured by Davao City-based durian candy maker Wendy’s.

Durian candies made by Wendy’s and sold by reported followers of televangelist Apollo Quiboloy downed nearly 2,000 people – mostly children here, and in the provinces of Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur last week.

READ: Durian candy shop closed in Davao City

Bernalte said Evangelista also ordered grocery stores to withdraw expired food items, those without expiry dates or those that bear tampered expiry dates from their shelves.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said she had told the police to pursue ambulant vendors to prevent a recurrence of the food poisoning that downed 40 pupils here last week.

Taliño-Mendoza said she also asked school officials to bar ambulant vendors near schools and to ensure that the food being sold in canteens were from trusted suppliers such as those cleared by health authorities.

In Davao City, an aide of Quiboloy said the televangelist has ordered an internal probe into the massive poisoning from candies his followers have sold.

“The Kingdom decided to investigate and had been trying to get information from the ground the past few days, but what we had are raw reports,” lawyer Sweetheart Aldevera said in a statement.

Aldevera said a team from the Kingdom of Jesus Christ — Quiboloy’s group had been dispatched to Surigao to conduct further verification of the reports, even as she confirmed that seven of those arrested were members of the congregation.

“The team had been advised to coordinate and cooperate with the authorities in Surigao,” Aldevera said.

Some 100 victims in Surigao del Sur remained in hospitals as of Tuesday, according to health officials there.

“Pastor Quiboloy’s thoughts, all our thoughts, are with the victims, especially the schoolchildren,” Aldevera added.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is very open about his friendship with Quiboloy, said he believed the pastor can answer all the issues that came out of the durian candy poisoning incident.

READ: Duterte dodges questions on Quiboloy re Caraga poisoning

“He can speak for himself when he comes back,” he said.

Quiboloy is currently in the US and was expected to issue a statement when he returns to the city.

But Duterte agreed that the alleged involvement of the pastor’s men in the incident should be investigated.

Reports from police authorities in Caraga said the tainted products were allegedly sold by Quiboloy’s followers.

Supt. Martin Gamba, spokesperson of the Caraga police, said several persons had been arrested in the towns of Cagwait, Tago and Tagbina and in the city of Tandag when authorities conducted pursuit operations against ambulant vendors said to be responsible for the proliferation of the candies.

A white Mitsubishi L-300 FB Deluxe with license plates MEM366 and registered under Quiboloy’s name was also seized.

“Wait for him to return and explain,” Duterte said.

In Agusan del Sur, where dozens of children were also downed by durian and mangosteen candies, Vice Gov. Santiago Cane Jr. said they were also coordinating with the Davao City government in the investigation of the incident.

Cane said the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Agusan del Sur also passed a resolution on Monday urging health, police and trade officials to “advise store owners and food manufacturers to withdraw their processed food products without (Food and Drugs Administration) permit, from the market within the province effective immediately.”

“This does not limit to candy products only but to all kinds of processed food that require FDA approval,” Cane said.