Death attends Angel’s birthday pantry
Locsin says she coordinated with authorities to ensure order in the event.
Actress-activist Angel Locsin’s “birthday pantry” was tinged on Friday with a morbid undertone when a male senior citizen lining up for food collapsed and died in a hospital.
The police identified the fatality as 67-year-old Rolando de la Cruz, a widower and resident of Brgy. Holy Spirit in Quezon City (QC) where the community pantry was set up by Locsin.
Dela Cruz was declared dead on arrival by doctors at the East Avenue Memorial Hospital also in QC.
Locsin was profuse in her apologies, saying she has the best intentions and that she coordinated properly with the authorities to ensure order and proper social distancing during the event.
But Mayor Joy Belmonte said Locsin did not coordinate withher office.
“I ask for forgiveness from the family,” Locsin said in a Facebook post. She was celebrating her 37th birthday. “I went to them and talked personally with the children in the hospital.”
Community pantries providing meals and food items to indigent people affected by the economic downturn resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic have become the rage.
One such pantry along Maginhawa Street, still in
QC, pushed its primary mover Patricia Non into the center of controversies over red-tagging allegations.
The Quezon City Police District has apologized to Non over a post that tied her with the leftist movement. Its Bagong Silangan police precinct has put up its own pantry with a soup kitchen.
Locsin vowed to support the children of Dela Cruz.