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Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Waiting: NBI still to file raps v. vendors
By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
With Garry Cabotaje & Jujemay G. Awit
All public school teachers in the city must be trained on basic life support and first aid procedures, in the wake of the poisoning of some 100 students in Bohol, a Cebu City Hall official said.
Councilor Edgardo Labella said this is already mandated in an ordinance he authored in 1999 yet, but it has not been implemented.
In a proposed resolution, he urged the City Schools Division to spearhead the training of teachers on basic life support, including cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, “so they will be equipped in responding correctly and quickly to ensure the safety of the students in calamities and accidents.”
“I believe if the teachers in Bohol knew how to administer first aid, they could have minimized the number of casualties. It’s high time that the City implemented the ordinance requiring the teachers to undergo such training,” he said.
At least 15 patients have reportedly been released from three different hospitals in Bohol, says Department of Health Regional director Rosario Marilyn Benabaye.
Now stable
This after the health department tagged pesticide as the cause of the death of at 28 elementary students in San Jose, Mabini town in Bohol.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7, meanwhile, will take appropriate action against the two cassava vendors if confirmatory tests prove it was pesticide poisoning.
As of yesterday, the NBI 7 was still waiting for the laboratory test results on the specimens taken from the corpses of two young victims.
But NBI 7 Chief Medardo de Lemos ordered lawyer Renato Mandawe, NBI Bohol field office head, to get a formal statement from vendor Anna Luyong, who has been confined at a government-run hospital in Tagbilaran City.
Soon after eating the cassava snacks during recess, over a hundred students started vomiting and suffered stomach pains and diarrhea last March 9. They were rushed to different hospitals.
Department of Health (DOH) 7 Director Dr. Rosario Marilyn Benabaye, though, said most of those still confined are in stable condition.
First aid
Labella said the poisoning incident should remind school officials of the importance of equipping teachers with knowledge on how to address emergency situations involving students, such as those leading to cardio-respiratory arrest.
Teachers should also learn how to administer first aid procedures to victims of food poisoning, drowning, electrocution, choking or suffocation, trauma, epilepsy, allergies and other accidents.
This is mandated under City Ordinance 1775 or the “Ordinance requiring Cebu City elementary and secondary school teachers to undergo training on basic life support, including CPR.”
But Labella lamented that it has not been implemented.
The ordinance also specified that teachers who are qualified to undergo training are those who are 50 years old and below and certified to be physically fit by a government doctor.
“Knowledge of first aid procedures could spell the difference between life and death,” Labella told reporters yesterday.
Contaminated
The City Council is scheduled to deliberate on Labella’s proposed resolution during their session on March 21.
The DOH earlier announced that carbamate, a lethal pesticide ingredient, caused the poisoning in San Jose.
The health department explained the possibility that the food was prepared in an environment that was “highly toxic and contaminated with chemical poisons and bacteria.”
On the other hand, the NBI is looking into the possibility that Luyong inadvertently used the powdery content of a pack of pesticide as flour or sugar when she fried cassava fritters in her kitchen.
The pack of pesticide contained carbamate, the bureau said.
The cassava, a root crop, is grated and mixed with white flour before it is fried in oil.
NBI’s de Lemos refused to say if Luyong and fellow vendor Victoria Hibaya could be held criminally liable for negligence, saying he will just wait for the test results from the bureau’s laboratory in Manila.
(March 16, 2005 issue)
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