Doctors urge gov’t, private sectors to determine milk tea victims’ cause of death

A group of physicians urged both the government and the private sector to determine what killed two people who died after drinking supposedly poisoned milk tea.

In a statement, the Philippine College of Physicians said that stakeholders should work together to trace the possible sources of the ingredients of the milk tea drinks from Ergo Cha shop in Sampaloc, Manila.

“The batch that the ingredients were sourced has to be checked [to] find out where else these were distributed so these can be isolated and immediately tested,” the statement said.

“The ongoing investigation also needs to immediately verify if this is an isolated case to address the scare that may affect the livelihood and economic interests of the industry involved in street beverages,” it added.

In its update on Monday, the Department of Health said that samples of the milk tea tested negative for the suspected toxic substances of cyanide and arsenate.

“Those substances were not actually detected, but we need further confirmatory tests. May ibang substances pa po na iko-consider once we will complete the investigation with PNP and the toxicologists,” said Food and Drug Administration’s Acting Deputy Director General Lulu Santiago during the press conference on the case on Monday.

Representatives of the DOH and the PNP went back to the tea shop to procure more samples. They will also obtain biological samples from the victims.

Although the health authorities have not yet determined the victims’ cause of death, they already said that the incident is likely an isolated case of poisoning.

PCP also called on the sectors involved to put up an information dissemination mechanism so that the public can monitor similar cases.

“This will somehow help allay fears and misinformation caused by this incident,” the group said.