Macapuno candies down 8 students in Quezon City

Radyo Inquirer PHOTO/Jong Manlapaz

(Update)

SEVERAL students showed signs of food poisoning after eating macapuno-flavored candies in Quezon City.

According to a report by Radyo Inquirer 990AM, students of Juan Sumulong High School experienced stomach pains, dizziness and vomiting after consuming the sweets.

Eight students (not 40 as earlier reported) were admitted to the Quirino Memorial Medical Center.

The report said the free candies, which were manufactured in Calauan, Laguna, were distributed as samples to the students.

Other reports said the students bought the candies from a young vendor who was able to enter their school in Cubao in the morning, the Quezon city police said.

The young man, simply described as in his 20s, claimed to be a “self-supporting student,” and went classroom to classroom selling the unmarked candies, mostly macapuno-flavored, at the school in Barangay San Roque, said Cubao police chief Supt. Marlou Martinez, in a phone interview by Philippine Daily Inquirer.

By 10 a.m., some of the students who ate the candies started suffering stomach pains and vomiting. Eight Grade 7 students—four boys and four girls—had to be rushed to the Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Project 4, Martinez said.

The students’ conditions were already reported stable at the hospital as of Thursday afternoon, though the hospital placed them under further observation, Martinez said.

An investigation has already been launched at the school, with samples of the candies recovered. Though the vendor was already gone before the victims suffered symptoms, police are now trying to determine his identity. With a report from Jaymee T. Gamil, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Yuji Gonzales, INQUIRER.net and Jong Manlapaz/Radyo Inquirer