City health Department chief, Dr. Nelita Navales, told ormoc.gov that many residents suffered diarrhea and vomiting since Saturday afternoon and were taken to the Ormoc District Hospital. Initially five were rushed to the hospital that evening, then the number rose and continued arriving for treatment the following day, she said.

On Sunday afternoon, physicians declared dead on arrival 9-year-old Edwin Gomez, then at 2 a.m. Monday, 6-year-old Angelo Mendaros died.

Allan and Melanie Mendaros, the boy’s parents were devastated saying that they were helpless in saving the life of their son who they earlier left with their relatives in the sitio while they took their three children to the hospital for the treatment also.

Their relatives said that they have to take Angelo to the hospital too after they found him weakening due to continuous vomiting and loose vowel movement. Melanie said that Angelo could have been dehydrated and this could have caused his death while lying in her arms at the hospital.

Among the first patients was Artemio Sanchez, 50, who complained of stomach ache while attending a pre wedding night in the neighborhood. Others were Mirabelle Andrino, 18, and her 71-year old mother Remedios who both suffered from continued diarrhea and vomiting until past 4 a.m. Sunday.

Navales disclosed that her office has yet to confirm the cause of the cholera out breaks but she suspected that it could be due to water-borne bacteria. Stool samples were taken already from the victims but the City Health has yet to wait for the result in the next few days. A team from the DOH regional office has been dispatched yesterday to the barangay also to investigate the cause, she said.

The city councilor Fernando Parrila told ormoc.gov that the water supply of sitio Besoria came from a reservoir constructed by the Ormoc Waterworks and is delivered to the area through a hose.

Conflict between the residents and the heirs of the land, where the hose passes, however developed when the latter wanted the government to compensate them for allowing the hose to pass through their land.

There were reports that the heirs sometimes cut off a portion of the hose when they want water for their rice field, and left the residents without water during these times. Then they connect the hose back by tying a rubber band sliced from an interior tire, and this might have paved the contamination of bacteria into the water supply, said Parilla.
Parilla believe that the continued downpour in the city since Christmas might have left the hose underwater causing the bacteria to seep into the hose and the water that the residents have been taking.

Mayor Eric Codilla also believed that the situation could have been caused by a tampered hose from the reservoir, especially that the opened section had been covered only with a rubber strip sliced from a used interior tire. When the hose got submerged underwater for several days, the bacteria contaminated the water that flowed through the hose to the houses of the residents, he said.

Codilla last Monday visited the hospital and condoled with the victims. He immediately gave foods and mineral waters to the guardians of the patients after learning that many of them have not eaten regularly for days already. He also ordered the City Social Worker and Development Office to the provide the patients’ guardians rice, canned goods, noodles, and kitchen utensils for their use while still in the hospital.

The mayor also provided with his own provided with his own money the bottles of dextrose needed by the patients the asked the guardians of the patients to keep all receipts of the medicines they had bought so that he can refund later their hospital expenses.

Codilla said that he will go to the barangay soon to inspect the place and see for himself what the city must do to stop and prevent a repeat of the contamination of the water supply. He said that this was the second diarrhea outbreak in the city, the first time of which was in Barangay Lake Danao last year when more than 20 persons were hospitalized.