Tedurays downed by contaminated food served in Maguindanao del Sur wedding rite

COTABATO CITY— More than 60 villagers, among them children, were rushed to different medical dispensaries after feasting on food served in a traditional Teduray wedding event in Barangay Pandan in South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur on Thursday.

South Upi Mayor Reynalbert Insular and officials of their Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office confirmed on Friday morning the food poisoning incident in Sitio Fanang in Barangay Pandan.

Citing reports by barangay officials, Insular said that the victims complained of nausea before they started to vomit and complained of abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Employees of the South Upi MDRRMO told reporters that 47 patients were admitted in the small government hospital in the center of the municipality, where majority of residents are ethnic non-Moro Tedurays.

Many other patients were treated by health workers in barangays around and in medical facilities in nearby Upi town in Maguindanao del Norte.

The physician Mohammad Ariff Baguindali, chief of the Maguindanao del Sur Integrated Provincial Health Office, said they have dispatched a team to South Upi to investigate the incident and provide victims with essential medical and relief support.

Baguindali said that they are certain that the food served during Thursday’s wedding rite in Sitio Fanang in Barangay Pandan was contaminated with harmful bacteria.

“Clearly, by all indications, it was a case of unintentional food poisoning," Baguindali said.