Three children drowned while taking a swim in a water catchment hole inside a construction site in Barangay Pitalo, San Fernando, some 30 kilometers south of Cebu City, at 4 p.m on Saturday, said a report released by the police today.
The San Fernando police identified the victims as siblings Ringgo Cañeda, 10, and Rodrigo Cañeda Jr.,7, and their cousin TJ Dizon Ybañez, 7, all residents of Sitio Lakaraw in Barangay Pitalo.
SPO1 Rolando Bastida, the desk officer of the San Fernando Police Station, said Ringgo asked permission from their mother to go for a swim with his younger brother Rodrigo but did not say where.
“Wala mag tuo ang inahan (Cañeda brothers) na didto sa may construction sa bag-o na subdivision mangaligo. Naa may bangag didto na kung mag ulan ang tubig adto didto aron di mo abot ang tubig sa karsada,” Bastida in a phone interview.
(The mother of Cañeda brothers did not expect that her sons would go to the construction site of a new subdivision in their area. There is a hole there to store rainwater so that it would not cause flooding on the road outside the construction site).
Cebu has been experiencing light to moderate rains since Friday because of the southwest monsoon enhanced by a tropical depression, Fabian.
Bastida said a backhoe was used to recover the remains of the three children who were brought to the Carcar Provincial Hospital where they were declared dead.