Trace source of food poisoning

It is actually a tall order. But the City Health Office must be able to trace the source of the food poisoning that downed some 79 persons of the Mighty Corporation Sunday.

Dr. Salome Biñas is the officer-in-charge of the CHO. But, I am sure that she grasps the importance of tracking down the source of the contaminated food. The laboratory examination of samples taken from the patients should be made available at the soonest time possible. Otherwise, the entire episode may again be forgotten before the infection source is finally tracked down.

The most important thing is to determine the identity of the food caterer. His/her food preparation must be inspected to insure that proper hygiene and sanitation are being observed to avoid another similar incident.

It is not enough for the CHO to claim that they are inspecting the food catering establishments. Or the same with food stalls. The problem is that it had happened. And the more imperative need is now to pinpoint the source of the poisoned food.

Thank God, the 79 survived the incident. But who knows whether the next one could wipe out an entire bunch of partygoers and celebrators of an event.

***

We hope to hear militant organizations extend their sympathies to the families of the “liquidated” victims of rebels exhumed recently by elements of the 61st Infantry Battalion in Camindangan, Sipalay City.

Considering that an inactive NPA member had earlier pointed to the grave of Kagawad Porferio Tabano deserves to be recognized. And Tabano family members should be given justice for the death of their father 19 years ago. Perhaps, the informant would be able to point out the identities of the NPA gunmen who tortured and gunned down Tabano.

And the left leaning organizations should go out of their way to ease the family’s pain by helping determine who the perpetrators of Tabano’s death were. And bring them to justice, if they are still around.

And so with the other skeletal remains.

I suppose there are many more unmarked graves in the Sipalay and CHICKS area. And, hopefully, the 61st IB under Lt. Col. Romeo Basco, may be able to win over other civilians to point them out so that they can be given the proper burial.

***

It is sad enough to lose one child. But to return home from abroad to find one’s wife and two children dead must be agonizing.

And that is the tragedy that greeted yesterday Erjo Junatas of Barangay Paraiso, Sagay City, a seaman working in Florida aboard a luxury liner. He must still be dazed by the shocking report that he had lost his entire family – his wife Minni Magdalene, 39; and children SK Federation president Gene Noel, 16, and Ann Margarette, 6. So with the driver, 26-year old Allan Carmona.

The EB Magalona police, according to Chief Inspector Samuel Mina, is readying charges against the driver of the Isuzu six-wheeler truck owned by Kim Marketing. Rolando Pasigado, the truck driver, is now under police custody.

I was saddened by the tragedy because the Junatas family are from Barangay Paraiso, part of the generic term of Fabrica, Sagay. I had spent the best years of my younger days in that barangay. And thus, the pain suffered by Junatas is something that also affects me.

But there is also the comforting thought that his loved ones must now be in the bosom of the Father. They will take care of you, Erjo. We join you in praying for them as well as the more important prayers for you that you may transcend your Calvary and win the redemption that the Savior had promised His people on earth.

***

Senator Loren Legarda keeps harping in the fact that Vice President Noli de Castro should not succeed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should the latter be impeached or resigned from office. The reason for her preference for the snap election.

Loren is an Antiqueña. And I would be among the first to bat for her. But she comes up with the strangest ideas that Noli, against whom she had filed an electoral protest for the latter’s win over her, remains embittered that she prefers an option that is hardly given much of a chance to be accomplished.

The Supreme Court had already ruled that Noli is the winner. And it threw out her petition for reconsideration. In effect, the high tribunal confirmed that De Castro is the duly-elected vice president. Thus, even if one has reservations about the vice president’s ability to govern that nation, one must acknowledged that the people had voted for him as vice president with the full awareness that he is just one heart beat away from the Presidency.*

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