3 kids dead, parents hospitalized after eating ‘alamang’ in CamNorte

LEGAZPI CITY—-Three children died while their parents were taken to a hospital in Camarines Norte province on Tuesday after they ate an “alamang” (shrimp fry) dish that was suspected to be cooked using contaminated salt, police said on Wednesday.

Chief Insp. Victor Abarca, Jose Panganiban town police chief, said siblings John and Princess Gallon, 5 and 2 years old, respectively, died while being taken to the Jose Panganiban Primary Hospital.

Their older brother, Mark, 7, died while being taken to the Camarines Norte Provincial Hospital (CNPH) in Daet town, the same hospital where their parents, Valentino, 26, and Jessa, 26, were confined.

Abarca said the Gallon family lives in Barangay (village) Parang in Jose Panganiban, where Valentino works as a fisherman.

He said the alamang that the family had for lunch on Tuesday was fished out early that day by Valentino off the waters of Santa Milagrosa village.
By 3:30 p.m., Abarca said family members complained of stomach ache and started vomiting.

Personnel of the town’s rural health unit (RHU) suspected that whoever cooked the dish might have mixed the contaminated salt into the alamang. They said other fishermen and their families who ate the shrimp fry caught that day in the town did not report any food poisoning case.

Abarca said investigators took samples of the salt used by the family and discovered that this smelled foul.

RHU personnel took salt samples to the Department of Health (DOH) laboratory unit here for toxin tests. CDG

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