ONE person died while three others were hurt after eating milkfish, or bangus, for dinner in Barangay Poblacion, Lapu-Lapu City on Friday, Oct. 28, 2022.
Maj. Ramil Dugan, chief of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station 3 in Poblacion, identified the fatality as 35-year-old Felix Genelazo, a construction worker from Carcar City in southern Cebu.
One of Genelazo’s companions, construction worker Virgilio Supas, 41 was still confined at the Lapu-Lapu City Hospital for further medical intervention.
Although they also ate the spoiled fish, fellow construction workers Haslenito Bonghanoy and Jaymar Padillo only suffered minor ailments and got better after taking medication.
Dugan said that based on the initial investigation, one of the four construction workers bought a kilo of milkfish for P30 from an unidentified fish monger at the Lapu-Lapu City Public Market around 5 p.m. on Friday.
Dugan said the construction workers reportedly grilled the fish then ate them for dinner.
But at 8 p.m. the four men started to feel symptoms of food poisoning, such as vomiting, stomach aches and diarrhea, for the next four hours, or until midnight.
The victims only decided to seek medical attention around 2 a.m. as their condition got worse.
But their failure to immediately get medical attention cost Genelazo’s life. Dugan said Genelazo died soon after arriving at the hospital.
Dugan said the construction workers may have bought the fish thinking that it was fresh considering that it was already dark around 5 p.m.
Though they also ate “ginamos” or fish paste, the surviving victims told police that the bangus could have been the cause of the “poisoning.”
Dugan said they are still trying to identity the fish monger who sold the bangus.