Hunger in Negros takes another child's life
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/23/2008 3:30 AM
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A boy died while two others were hospitalized from cassava poisoning in Negros Occidental Tuesday.
Doctors confirmed two-year-old Erwin Bernelo died of food poisoning after eating "bugor", a variety of cassava that has high cyanide content.
The victim's father, Edwin, said he had nothing else to feed his family, so he harvested the root crop from their backyard in barangay Salong in Kabankalan City.
He said he steamed the grated cassava and fed it to his five children.
Erwin’s two siblings, six-year-old Beverly and five-year-old Edwin, were also rushed to the hospital, but are now out of danger.
Dr. Claudelia Pabillo, chief of Lorenzo District Hospital, said children are more vulnerable than adults when they eat this cassava variety.
Pabillo explained that during hard times, the poor often depend on root crops for sustenance. Thus, she advised the public to be more cautious when it comes to eating these root crops.
The City Health Office took samples of the cassava variety that was eaten by the family for tests.
According to Wikipedia, cassava roots and leaves should not be consumed raw since they contain free and bound cyanogenic glucosides. These are converted to cyanide in the presence of linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava.
Hunger looms over Negros
Bernelo's death is another indication of growing hunger in the province.
Last August 3, poverty drove a family to rely on too much monosodium glutamate (MSG) to flavor their rice, causing a two-year-old boy to fall down the stairs of their house last Saturday in Sagay City
Two-year-old Wilfredo ‘Willie’ Labajo Jr.was left in the care of his older siblings when their parents went out to sell iced buko. Willie felt dizzy and fell from the stairs after his nine-year-old sister, ‘Jerelyn’, fed him with rice and MSG, instead of rice with salt.
The family had ran out of salt, the flavoring they normally mix with rice. His parents only earn P60 a day selling iced buko, and with rising prices of rice, the Labajo family has not had enough money to buy any meat or fish to go with it.
On August 11, a three-year-old farmer's son in Negros Occidental died from cardiac arrest due to severe dehydration, pneumonia and malnutrition, according to a priest.
Jenny Belleza was declared dead on arrival at the Cadiz District Hospital last Monday. The doctors said the immediate cause of Jenny's death was cardio-respiratory arrest.
Reverend Guerrero Rovero, chair of Diocesan for Justice and Peace in San Carlos City, said Jenny's death may seem like an isolated case, but he added it reflects "the plight of the poor children residing in the rural areas."
"This case touches the very essence of the social reality prevailing in our society that takes a silent but heavy toll on the children of millions of poor peasants and hacienda workers on Negros Island, which we fondly called ‘Sugar Bowl of the Philippines’, “ he said.
Rovero said pneumonia, malnutrition, and dehydration afflict the poorest sectors in the country. -- With a report from Mitch Lipa, ABS- CBN Bacolod
