By FRANCIS C. HIDALGO JR.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – A fruit juice believed to have been contaminated with deadly substance claimed the lives of four high school students of a government-run school in Villaverde town here the other day.

The victims were identified as Jefferson Retorio, 16; Severino Quiyod 16; Rommel Dacusin, 18; and Joani Molina, 20, all third year high school students of Villaverde’s Bintawan National High School (BNHS), who succumbed to poisoning after reportedly drinking a contaminated homemade fruit juice.

Dr. Exelsior Valdez, director of the Medical Mission Group Hospital (MMGH) Solano town where the victims expired while doctors were trying to revive them, said that the four students might be victims of poisoning.

Valdez, however, stressed that the services of a toxicologist are needed to really determine the deadly substance that the victims had accidentally or unwittingly consumed which cost their lives.

BNHS nurse Rosie Dacumos said that the students started to feel restless, dizzy and feel like vomiting inside the classroom around 2 p.m. Wednesday.

“We gave them first aid but to no avail. We then decided to rush them to the hospital after froths started coming out of their mouths. But it’s all too late as one of them had been declared dead on arrival,” she said.

After Quiyod, the other victims reportedly expired one after the other at around one hour intervals.

The Department of Education here had ordered that the victims be autopsied and also sought the assistance of experts, including the police for an investigation over the tragic incident.

Police initially suspect that the victims might have succumbed to poisoning after they found plastic sachets inside their class room. The plastics, it was learned, still contained small amount a water residue in violet-like color.

Meanwhile, school authorities belied they were selling home-made juices and any related intakes except those branded ones or those Bureau of Foods and Drugs-certified drinks.

“Our canteen is not offering unsafe foods or drinks. We are very particular and meticulous about the foods or drinks we are selling to our students,” Dacumos said.