A toddler died after she drowned in a pail of water on Monday afternoon.
But the incident, which happened in Sitio Bakhaw, Barangay Cabiangon in Pinamungajan town located about 50 kilometers southwest of Cebu City, was only reported to the police on Tuesday.
Sitio Bakhaw is located four kilometers away from the town proper.
PO1 Nathaniel Mansueto, desk officer of the Pinamungajan Police Station, said that the one-year and six-months old girl was playing with a pail of water.
Mansueto said that the girl accidentally fell into the pail of water, head first, causing her to drown.
She was already dead when she was found by her mother, Rosanna Bacus.
Investigation conducted by SPO1 Nonita Baroman of the town’s childrens and womens desk show that Bacus and her live-in-partner James Carbilledo left the child under the care of two relatives aged 11 and 15 years old.
The couple was looking for money to borrow to buy medicines for their child, who was then sick with fever.
Carbilledo, a construction worker, did not have money for her medicines, said Mansueto.
But the girl’s caretakers fell asleep inside their shanty and did not notice when the toddler got out and went to the back portion of their shanty where the pail of water was located.
Their home is a one-story structure that only has curtains for its door.