Church group denies giving spoiled food to Laguna evacuees
Church group denies giving spoiled food to Laguna evacuees
GMANews.TV – Wednesday, October 21
A local religious group in San Pedro, Laguna on Tuesday denied giving spoiled meals to over 200 flood victims who fell ill after eating the tainted food last Monday.
Bro. Jhun Garapan, security head of the Christian Bible Baptist Church, said they themselves ate the supposedly contaminated food, but no one among them experienced nausea, abdominal pains, and loose bowel movement.
“Yung natira sa amin, kinain mismo at biyaya ng Panginoon, walang nangyari sa amin dito (We ate the leftovers and none of us got sick),” Garapan told GMA News in an interview.
Garapan said their group prepared 1,000 food packs – 600 of which were given to the evacuees at the Sioland Building Evacuation Center (not the Central Elementary School, as earlier reported) in Barangay Nuevo.
Last Monday afternoon, Garapan’s group distributed the packed meals at the evacuation center, where over 200 families or 1000 people temporarily take refuge after their homes were inundated by tropical storm “Ondoy’s” flood waters.
At least 212 people were sickened after eating the packed meals which consisted of rice, chicken adobo, and boiled egg.
“Ako lang din ang nahilo. Ako lang din ang nag-suka. Yung mga bata, hindi (I was the only one who felt dizzy and who vomited. The children did not),” said Mary Jane Catalan, an evacuee. In her family, she was the only one who consumed the food given by the Christian Bible Baptist Church.
However, another evacuee who consumed the food said nothing bad happened to her.
“Kumain lang ako ng manok na adobo at itlog na nilaga. Nung pagkatapos, okay naman. Nung mga 11:30 ng gabi, para lang kumukulo tiyan ko pero okay naman,” said Mariam Baturiano.
(I ate chicken adobo and boiled eggs. Afterward, nothing happened to me. At about 11:30 in the evening, I had an upset stomach, but nothing happened to me and everything is okay.)
Earlier in the day, the San Pedro municipal health office brought food samples to the Food and Drug Administration (formerly Bureau of Food and Drug or BFAD) for examination.
Garapan said that his group welcomes having their food tested. “Okay yung i-test nila para malaman ho natin kung saan talaga galing yung cause ng food poisoning (We welcome the test so that we’ll know the cause of the possible food poisoning),” Garapan said. - Carlo Lorenzo with Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV
This is what people are good at now a day, blaming other people for what terrible thing happened to them. First of all there are so many factors that could have affected the people for having such sickness. I can include the place, the weather, the food, the drink, or just their selves. Indeed we should not conclude of anything with out proper proofs. These ministers gave the refuges foods that are indeed needed the most and this is the return they get. Please we know that we are under a hard time but please calm you selves for blaming is not the answer to any of our questions. As what I have said there are indeed many factors for that could have affected any given problem to occur thus one should not immediately generalize. For those who are sick please take care and get well soon I together with the Filipino people are praying for you great recovery wellness of our country. God Bless and God be with us all.
Source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/gma/20091020/tph-church-group-denies-giving-spoiled-f-ce44f36.html
