KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/7 July)—Eleven children and a mother were hospitalized Friday afternoon after eating a dish laced with a rat poison in a remote village in Magpet town, North Cotabato, Mayor Efren Piñol confirmed today.
Piñol said the dish of tasty shrimps was intended as baits to rats that since last week had been pestering the farms of a certain Engr. Eisenhower Sorosa in Barangay Amabel.
Sorosa allegedly put in a small container the dish with zinc phosphide, considered a highly potent rodenticide, and placed it at the back of his multi-cab.
Pinol said that Sorosa parked his vehicle near a public school at Sitio Libas, Barangay Amabel.
The engineer did not expect, though, the school children would be interested in his “dish.”
“The dish smelled so good and the children, because of their curiosity, tasted it. Others did the same thing. One of the children brought home a small quantity of the dish and had his mother tasted it,” said Pinol.
A few minutes later, the children and the mother felt dizzy and started to vomit, he added.
Pinol said that when Sorosa found out that the children tasted his “bait,” he immediately brought them to the nearby rural health center but transferred them at around 6 p.m. to the Cotabato Provincial Hospital at Amas Complex here.
“At around 10 a.m. today, 10 of the 12 victims were already discharged from the hospital. The two other children remained at the observation room,” the mayor added.
They learned a lesson the hard way—not to touch or taste something if it’s not theirs,” Pinol stressed. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)