LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has warned the public against eating goby, a fish locally known here as tambaboy.
Nonie Enolba, Bicol-BFAR spokesman, yesterday said samples of the food that killed three children in Barangay Parang here on Tuesday showed that it contained goby that their father reportedly caught off Barangay Sta. Milagrosa.
“The strength of the toxin is equivalent to cyanide,” Inolba told a radio interview, adding that it became more potent when the fish was cooked in vinegar.
She said there was only a small amount of goby mixed with shrimps that the victims ate.
Mark PJ Galleon, 7; his siblings John Rommel, 5, and Princess Jessabel, 2, were pronounced dead on arrival at the Camarines Norte Provincial Hospital. Their parents, Valentino and Jessa, who also complained of abdominal pains after eating the dish, were confined at the same hospital.
Inolba said there are around 100 species of goby, most of them poisonous.