Ten people have drowned in swimming parties and outings in different vacation spots in Luzon since Holy Wednesday, bringing to 22 the number of fatalities in various incidents during the holiest days of the Lenten season, disaster officials and police reported yesterday.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported the drowning of Eugenio Barcena, 52, of Bangbangar in Bangued, Abra, when he went for a swim after a drinking session with relatives on the beach in Cabalangan, Bantay, Ilocos Sur, at 4:40 p.m. last Maundy Thursday.
He was rushed to the Central Ilocos Sur District Hospital but it was already too late.
In Quirino province, nine-year-old Jestoni Hangdaan drowned while swimming with his brother in the Addalam River in Aglipay town, around 3 p.m. also Maundy Thursday, said the NDRRMC.
In Bagac, Bataan, James Romm Mirasol, 16, and Vincent Caramonte, 19, whose families travelled all the way from Magalang, Pampanga, for a seaside picnic drowned in the same afternoon, said Senior Inspector Joey Sampaga, local police chief.
Sampaga said the two teenagers seemed to have been carried by strong waves 30 meters out into the sea from the shoreline of Barangay Pag-asa in Bagac around 4:30 p.m. When their bodies were recovered and taken to the hospital, it was all too late.
In Cavite, an outing by a group of factory workers turned into tragedy when one of them – 29-year-old Gilvie F. Terunez – drowned at the Sta. Rosa Falls (also called the “Mayang Falls) in Barangay Conchu, Trece Martires City also on Maundy Thursday.
Police Officer 2 Lester Luke B. Baysa, case investigator, said Terunez disappeared underwater at past noontime and her body was retrieved three hours later.
In another incident in Cavite, grief gripped a group of Seventh Day Adventist excursionists when one of their members drowned during their “Palarong Bayan” mass swimming activity game in the bay in Maragondon town last Friday.
Case prober PO2 Teddy Labampa said the group’s head pastor, Jessie G. Calera, reported the drowning of the 34-year-old member of their flock, Harold E. Pablo, who hails from Malabon City in Metro Manila.
Also on Good Friday, Engr. Mark Vendiola Maravillas, 23, single and a native of GMA, Cavite, drowned after being carried out into the sea during a swimming outing with his friends in Sitio Tabunan, Barangay Bignay 2, Sariaya, Quezon.
Police said a local boy, Christopher Carriaga Javier, 17, single, a farmer, tried to rescue Maravillas, but the lifesaver he brought with him was thrashed by violent waves. Javier also drowned in his effort to save the engineer.
In Infanta, also in Quezon province, bossom buddies Jonas Rebante Mercado, 18, and Jeffrey Avellaneda Borreo, 16, single both of Purok Libis, Poblacion, Bantilan, Infanta, drowned in the sea on Good Friday.
The two boys were having a beach party with their friends at the Monica Beach Resort in Barangay Boboin, when the high tide also brought big waves that drowned them around 5:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the NDRRMC also monitored 12 vehicular accidents, one maritime incident, one carbon monoxide poisoning, and at least three fire incidents since Maundy Thursday which resulted in the death of a dozen other people.--Source: NDRRMC/Manila Bulletin