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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
School vendors worry about future
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Sidewalk vendor Frankie Manaya is worried about no longer earning enough to feed his family, now that the safety of food sold by sidewalk vendors is being put to light following the Bohol incident.
Manaya, one of the ambulant vendors selling goods and drinks outside the Cebu City Central School gates, is saddened by the announcement of Department of Education (DepEd) heads to prohibit them from continuing with their livelihood.
“Kami napud nga mga vendors ang mangamatay. Wa nami’y kan-on (We vendors will also die. We won’t have money to buy food),” lamented fruit vendor Restituta, 66, who has been selling on the streets for the last 23 years.
Her son, Romeo, 43, who sells candies, junk food and cookies in a stall beside hers, said they wouldn’t mind lying low while public concern is still very high.
But they hope the ban will not last very long.
Health authorities yesterday announced that pesticide that was accidentally mixed in cooking oil, not cyanide found in cassava, caused the deaths of at least 27 school children in Mabini town, Bohol Province.
“Mura gyud mi’g nahugno kay kahibaw mi tanan vendors gyud maapektuhan (Our hearts sank because we know all of us vendors will be affected),” Romeo said.
Two cases
In Cebu City, two food poisoning incidents involving students happened in Barangay Mambaling last year, City Health Department (CHD) sanitation inspector Nilo Ares said.
One incident involved school children in Alaska Elementary School, where children ate spaghetti bought from a sidewalk vendor, and the other involving students of University of Cebu-METC, who reportedly ate in a nearby eatery.
Although CHD has been monitoring street food vendors and has required them to secure health cards, Eve Socorro Lima, assistant chief of the Environmental, Commercial, Industrial Sanitation Division, said they still would not certify that food sold in the streets are safe.
“Knowingly, there is a risk. So probably swerte-swerte ra gyud na (it’s like a game of chance). We still say ‘eat at your own risk’,” she said.
Since these vendors do not stay in one area, monitoring them has been difficult.
Health card
However, she encouraged the public to ask the vendors to show their health card since it certifies that they are fit to sell foodstuff.
Having a health card means they have secured a valid chest X-ray and have undergone a stool culture, a test that determines the presence of typhoid, cholera and amoeba in their system, Dr. Lima said.
Despite the lack of logistics, the CHD conducts food handling seminars from time to time.
Dr. Lima hopes legislation will be passed to make the food handling course a requirement for ambulant vendors.
Cebu City United Vendors Association president Maria Pino said they plan to meet with all their member-vendors selling near schools and check if they have attended the food handling seminars.
Pino said she will also encourage them to display their health cards, which they require their members to secure, if only to convince customers that they are serving clean food and drinks.
For Manaya, he said the fact that he drinks the buko juice he sells proves it is clean.
Elena Altobar, 55, a food vendor for 45 years, said they would never sell anything that is not safe.
“Nganong mamaligya man mi og makadaut sa mga bata (Why would I sell something harmful to children)?” she pointed out.
(March 15, 2005 issue)
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