Boy, 3, drowns in resort’s pool

MANILA, Philippines - A family outing turned into a nightmare after a three-year-old boy drowned in a resort in Valenzuela City Thursday afternoon.

Hazzef Kian Cahepe was found by his friends beneath the surface of the water in a pool three feet deep at the Villa Martha resort just before 4 p.m., Valenzuela police chief Senior Superintendent Rhoderick Armamento said.

“The boy was actually revived by one of the persons swimming in the pool so they rushed him to the nearest hospital in a tricycle but he was declared dead on arrival by the attending physician” at Santisimo Rosario Hospital, he said.

Police Officer 3 Richelle Sinel said Hazzef’s uncle, Jeffrey Sanchez, asked his sister Donna Mae’s permission to take her son with him to the resort.

“Although the boy was hesitant ‘because he will not see his mom again,’ he was coaxed into joining his uncle,” Sinel said.

She said the boy was with other children in the pool while Sanchez drank with their relatives when Shaena Sanchez, one of their companions, noticed that the boy was missing.

The boy’s relatives searched for him all over the resort until one of his friends found him underwater.

Armamento said Hazzef’s mother refused to have her son autopsied. Sanchez said they will sue Norberto Concepcion Jr., reportedly the owner of the resort.

Sinel said there were high-tech closed-circuit television cameras in the resort, but the people in charge of the facility said they have no records of the incident.

Armamento said it will be up to the court to determine who was liable for the death of the child, “but definitely somebody has to be charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide in relation to child abuse.”