Over 20 individuals in Balasan town, Province of Iloilo suffered from suspected food poisoning after consuming a kind of fish locally known as "bansa" (barracuda). 

The fish was bought reportedly at a public market past 3 p.m. on August 24, 2025.

The patients complained of numbness in different parts of the body, chest pain, stomachache, among other signs and symptoms.

Zarah Hermogenes, nurse at Balasan Primary Healthcare Facility, said that the patients consumed a fish known locally as "bansa."

The facility in its investigation learned that plenty of marketgoers bought the fish.

A family of fish vendors admitted purportedly that when they cooked and ate the said fish, they too felt ill.

The Balasan Primary Healthcare Facility said it is possible that the toxin was from a “butete” (pufferfish) which the vendors found inside its gut while the fish was chopped up.

Police Lieutenant Luzel Macaroncio, chief of the Balasan Philippine National Police (PNP), said that a total of 24 patients was dispensed already from the hospital.

As of this writing, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has taken samples of the fish for examination.