SAN FERNANDO, Cebu — Ten-year-old Ringgo Caneda, his brother Rodrigo Caneda Jr., 7, and their cousin TJ Evanez, also 7, only wanted to enjoy Saturday’s downpour when they sought and got the permission of the Caneda brothers’ mother to go out and have fun in the rain.
Instead, the boys all ended up dead. Without the knowledge of their elders, the boys entered a housing construction site in their neighborhood in Sitio Lacaron, Barangay Pitalo of San Fernando town, swam inside a rain-filled four-foot pit and drowned.
The mother, alerted about the mishap that befell on her children and nephew by a neighbor, rushed the boys to the town’s hospital, but it was too late.
Chief Insp. Adrian Nula, the San Fernando police chief, said the children were able to sneak inside the construction site at around 4 p.m. on Saturday as it had no enclosure yet and the security guard on duty at that time was at the main gate area.
Nula said the boys’ families would not say yet if they have any plan to take legal action against the subdivision developer.
Nula, however, said the developer appeared to have no liability on the matter since the kids entered the property without their knowledge.
Representatives from the Casa Mira, the subdivision developer, also told the police that would fully cooperate with the police and provide whatever assistance to the children’s families, said Nula.
SPO1 Rolando Bastida, desk officer of San Fernando Police Station, in a phone interview, had said the boys’ mother did not imagine that when the boys asked permission to play in the rain, they would end up in the construction site.
Cebu has been experiencing light to moderate rains since Friday because of the southwest monsoon enhanced by 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.
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