Ilang kaso ng food contamination at pananakit sa mga senior citizen, sinundan ng ‘Reporter’s Notebook.’
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00:00 [Sounds of a woman being pushed by an old man]
00:08 In this viral video, you can see two women
00:11 while a man is pushing a woman's mouth.
00:15 The old man has no resistance while the women are forcing him to eat.
00:21 But the two are not content.
00:23 They even poured water on the old woman.
00:28 What's the story behind this video?
00:31 How many senior citizens have experienced violence?
00:35 The worst is that they often get hit by their own children
00:44 and their own homes.
00:46 How can they protect themselves from such violence?
00:50 [Sounds of a woman being pushed by an old man]
00:54 [Sounds of a woman being pushed by an old man]
01:02 What if the worst is that you suddenly see in your food?
01:09 A customer is shocked when he sees the women crawling
01:16 and their hair is black from the food he took out from a canteen.
01:23 [Sounds of a man being pushed by an old man]
01:28 The problem is that he ate some parts of the fish.
01:33 [Sounds of a woman being pushed by an old man]
01:42 [Sounds of a woman being pushed by an old man]
01:46 A live cockroach was found in a rice meal of a customer of a food stall.
01:56 The cockroach even bit the customer.
02:01 When I tried to eat it, it moved in my mouth.
02:09 [Sounds of a woman being pushed by an old man]
02:12 How can we save ourselves from such pests while selling food to the public?
02:18 There's a cockroach in the refrigerator.
02:22 And what are the local governments doing to preserve the privacy of food establishments?
02:30 [Music]
02:34 [Sounds of a man being pushed by an old man]
02:41 On January 18, Miles bought a cooked meal from a food stall in Valenzuela City.
02:48 But while eating, he noticed that something was moving in his food.
02:58 There are a lot of cockroaches.
03:01 They are moving.
03:04 When he looked closely, he was surprised to see that it was a cockroach.
03:10 It was crawling and was surrounded by a box of rice.
03:16 Cockroaches are small and there are a lot of them.
03:27 He was finally able to see the cockroach in the food.
03:30 There are a lot of them.
03:32 Let's just go back there.
03:34 I ate more than half of it.
03:36 When I looked at the bowl, I was shocked.
03:40 I asked myself why there are so many moving things.
03:44 Then I took a bite of the food.
03:46 I saw the cockroaches.
03:49 Because of what happened, Miles immediately called the food stall where he bought the food.
03:56 We talked on the phone.
03:58 If anything happens to me, whether I get sick or I get food poisoning,
04:03 they will pay for the expenses.
04:06 Because of Miles' weakness, the food was not effective for his health.
04:12 He reported the incident to the barangay.
04:14 We also blotted for the safety, right?
04:17 That there is a clear discussion.
04:21 We interviewed the owner of the food stall that Miles is complaining about.
04:26 Her defense is that the fish was not cleaned properly before cooking.
04:32 Because it was before we helped him.
04:34 Maybe the fish was not cleaned properly.
04:38 Maybe that's the cause of the fish getting worms.
04:44 It's moving.
04:47 We also consulted a food expert on what is the possible reason
04:51 why there are worms in the fish that Miles bought and ate.
04:55 Usually, the small worms that we see in food like small rice,
05:00 they come from the larvae.
05:03 So these are the maggots or larvae of the small eggs of the fish when it was caught.
05:08 It is also possible that the food was not properly maintained while being sold.
05:14 For example, it is displayed that the food is in a bag without a lid.
05:17 And if it is long, it is really displayed.
05:20 A few days after the incident,
05:25 the City Health Office of Valenzuela visited the carinderia where Miles bought the contaminated fish.
05:33 Upon entering, they were already given the container of food without a lid and it was just left there.
05:40 What are you complaining about?
05:42 This is what we call a post-audit requirement for our business.
05:46 The City Health Office said that this is clearly a violation of their sanitation code.
05:52 Because all of that can contribute to contamination.
05:59 That is what we are avoiding, the food for our businesses that can be contaminated with sand and the establishment itself if it is not clean.
06:08 The carinderia followed the inspection if there is a sanitary permit.
06:12 As we see, our target is the carinderia, it is compliant with the law.
06:18 But they clarified that there is not enough sanitary permit to save the owner of the carinderia from the incident.
06:28 Because of this, the LGU will monitor the carinderia for 14 days.
06:33 But they need to follow the requirements requested by the City Health Office,
06:39 such as food safety seminar and pest control.
06:43 For the owner and the people of the carinderia, they need to pass the exam in food safety training.
06:49 After that, if they don't want to comply, we will issue an endorsement to the BPNO to let them pass.
06:56 [Music]
07:03 A cockroach was found mixed in the rice meal ordered by Tonton.
07:09 It is not his real name.
07:11 In a fish market in Lipabatangas.
07:15 He told that the cockroach is still alive and it is almost cooked.
07:22 It is inside the rice. When I tried it, I felt something moving.
07:26 They tried to complain about the incident in the food stall.
07:31 But the people there did not take any action.
07:34 When they saw that the cockroach is still alive, they went back to their place.
07:40 We waited for the action to be taken, reaction or whatever.
07:44 Until we were shocked, nothing happened.
07:47 Nothing went there.
07:50 We brought this incident to the City Health Office of Lipabatangas.
07:55 On Monday, they visited the food stall for inspection.
08:01 These are just a few images that were taken from an inspection.
08:06 Actually, what we saw is that there are a lot of breeding places of vermin, there are really cockroaches.
08:13 We don't know where they come from. There are open cons that it is possible that they come from there.
08:19 But what surprised them the most is that there are cockroaches inside the refrigerator.
08:24 The refrigerator is open and there are cockroaches. How did that happen?
08:27 Some of the things that were found inside the food stall are the use of kitchen utensils and food storage.
08:34 And kitchen appliances that are scattered and dirty.
08:38 It is possible that it is a way to eliminate pests.
08:41 They also discovered that there is no sanitary and mayors permit for the food establishment.
08:48 Because of the found pests, the City Health Office gave 10 days to fix the violations of the food stall.
08:55 We will do another inspection for next week.
08:58 We gave them 10 working days to complete all the requirements so that they can get a sanitary permit.
09:04 If there is a real pest, because this is a public health threat to the health of people,
09:15 we can recommend our health authority to close it.
09:21 Under the Sanitation Code of the Philippines,
09:24 any food establishment may be closed if there is no permit from the LGU.
09:30 It is in the law that the local government is responsible to monitor and inspect food establishments
09:37 to ensure the safety and cleanliness of what they sell to the public.
09:42 The Department of Health will remind the public to check if they have a sanitary permit.
09:52 It is also important for the customers to know if the food handlers have a health certificate for each food.
09:59 It means that the food handlers, the workers in a food establishment are appropriate or fit to work in food handling.
10:11 It is the responsibility of each food establishment to ensure the safety and cleanliness of the food they sell to the public.
10:18 It is also the duty of each local government to monitor and ensure that their food is in compliance with the law.
10:27 This is a lot of flies.
10:32 This is especially true in the case of food safety.
10:37 I am Yun Veneracion and this is the Reporter's Notebook.
10:41 In this cellphone video, you can see the two women calling an old woman.
10:54 The old woman came near and suddenly she swallowed some pieces of bread in her mouth.
11:04 The two women were unable to fight back the bite.
11:08 After a few seconds, the old woman suddenly swallowed some water.
11:14 The two women only stopped hurting each other when a child approached them to hold them.
11:20 In the reporter's notebook, we learned that there is another video where the two women were hurting the old woman.
11:31 These are the hurtful videos.
11:34 This is a prank for the content of their social media page.
11:38 According to an expert, the old woman was clearly abusing the old woman.
11:54 This is a prank to catch people's attention.
12:00 Why are you doing this to an elderly?
12:04 We have norms that should be respected.
12:09 But now, they are not using this to earn money.
12:14 That is the problem.
12:16 They should be censored.
12:18 There should be guidelines.
12:21 We should know our morals and culture.
12:25 It should not degrade a person, their race, color, and other things.
12:31 There should be respect.
12:33 We tried to get the women to release the video and their barangay.
12:38 But they still have not responded yet.
12:41 According to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority,
12:47 8.5% of the population of the Philippines are senior citizens.
12:51 That is equivalent to 9.22 million Filipinos, 6 years and above.
12:56 Because of that number, and being the challenges they are facing,
13:00 there are senior citizens who are considered marginalized or minor sector of the society.
13:06 It's good that we are not the ones who are affected.
13:11 They are not being affected.
13:14 In Marilao, Bulacan, an elderly woman was crying while sitting in her wheelchair.
13:21 Her face was almost black from the bruises she received.
13:25 The 76-year-old grandmother of Nita is a stroke patient and she is not able to walk.
13:32 She is also having a hard time speaking.
13:34 The elderly woman was hit by her neighbors.
13:39 Mom, where did you get hit?
13:42 Who did this to you?
13:46 My neighbors.
13:48 According to the story of her stepdaughter, Sheila,
13:51 it all started when her husband and two of their neighbors spoke to each other last New Year.
13:57 At that time, there were a lot of people and it was noisy.
14:00 That's why those two kids, our neighbors, answered.
14:05 They said that my husband used his dirty finger.
14:08 We did not see that.
14:11 Two men entered her house and they said that her husband was already being beaten.
14:17 And Nita's grandmother was not merciful.
14:21 They trespassed into my stepdaughter's house.
14:23 They were already beating her.
14:25 We waited for 15 to 30 minutes and we saw that her mom's breast was already swollen.
14:34 It was hard for her to move after she had a stroke in 2019.
14:39 But the elderly woman's feelings became even heavier after the beating.
14:44 Before, when she was sitting, we were watching TV.
14:48 She was always lying down because her head was aching.
14:54 But now, she is always quiet.
14:56 She can see her doctor.
15:00 Sheila complained to the barangay about what happened.
15:03 But no one could give them an answer on who could approach her first.
15:08 When we asked the four senior citizens where we could complain,
15:13 no one answered us.
15:15 They said that they did not know where.
15:17 When we called the local government of the barangay,
15:19 they said that the hearing would be held on their local government.
15:24 They already finished their three applications to the local government.
15:27 After this, they filed their three applications to the local government.
15:37 We need to finish this in 45 days.
15:41 If they cannot succeed through our third party,
15:50 the barangay will be forced to issue a certificate of file action.
15:56 So that they can help their mother with a higher hearing.
16:04 The family also needs help to treat the elderly.
16:08 They need to put the blame on their mother.
16:13 The program for the elderly also provided a little help.
16:17 The experience of Nita's grandmother's family is not far from the experience of Alberto Cadelena, 71 years old.
16:29 Grandpa Alberto's story, his niece told his wife that he was hurt when they lost the parking lot.
16:36 I was parking and he came.
16:40 He was about to go out and he took the payment.
16:42 I said, "That's not right. We are doing the wrong thing."
16:45 "What's wrong with you? You're old."
16:47 He said to me.
16:49 He suddenly hit me and I was behind him.
16:51 I was facing him and he hit me.
16:53 I was bleeding.
16:55 He ran away.
16:58 I was scared.
16:59 Until now, Grandpa Alberto's injuries are still fresh.
17:04 He had to get stitches to break his wound on his face.
17:07 He also said that he was running out of breath when the incident started.
17:11 I was running out of breath.
17:14 I couldn't even move.
17:16 I was running out of breath.
17:18 I saw something like a bubble and it was black.
17:25 When I was sleeping, I saw a light that was moving.
17:30 I couldn't work.
17:32 It was a big problem.
17:34 I couldn't eat.
17:36 My wife and children couldn't eat.
17:39 I couldn't depend on them because they had their own lives.
17:42 This is my father's medical legal.
17:46 These medicines that I bought from my father,
17:50 I bought them for my own use.
17:54 This is not the first time that his nephew hurt him.
17:58 That's why in January, he didn't report the violence in the barangay.
18:04 He will pay me.
18:06 If he doesn't pay me, we will talk in the barangay and I will continue with it.
18:10 But Rebecca's concern is that the barangay did not immediately take action on the complaint of her father.
18:16 When my father blattered to them that they are from the barangay,
18:20 they should have filed a case against them.
18:22 They are senior citizens.
18:24 It's a pity for the senior citizens who will come if they don't file a case against them.
18:28 When the reporter's notebook interviewed the barangay's captain,
18:32 they did not ignore any complaint that senior citizens brought to their office.
18:39 Of course, the normal procedure is that they are blattered to our brigade.
18:43 Well, they agreed that our senior citizen will be paid P3,000 and P500 weekly.
18:51 They are also helping to find the person hiding the suspect.
18:56 Because if they violated their agreement, they can file a legal action.
19:02 They can file a legal action against them because they violated the barangay's agreement.
19:13 They also monitored Grandpa Alberto so that the incident will not happen again.
19:19 In 2022, the House Bill 5116 or Senior Citizens Protection Act was passed in Congress.
19:28 It is a bill that will make abuse and abandonment of senior citizens a crime.
19:32 The problem is, until now, it is still in force.
19:36 This is a big thing for there to be sufficient protection for the senior citizens who experienced abuse.
19:43 The problem is, there is no concrete law that will be applicable to the victims of abuse.
19:51 It is also necessary to increase the attention that the government is giving to senior citizens,
19:58 especially those who are in the poorest sector of the Philippines.
20:01 There is a lack of knowledge on how to report, where to report.
20:07 It is important that in this law, there should be a fear of those who are abusing the seniors.
20:13 Filipinos are known as generous to the seniors.
20:20 But in the event that there is no respect and abuse reaches its peak,
20:27 it is important that they are protected by a law that will protect their rights.
20:32 I am Mackie Pulido, and this is the Reporter's Notebook.
20:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]