5 Grade 11 students drown in Zamboanga Sibugay river

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Five Grade 11 students died after they were swept away by rampaging floodwaters while swimming in a river in Purok Santan in Barangay New Antique in RT Lim town in Zamboanga Sibugay on Thursday, September 24.

Local executives and officials of the Zamboanga Sibugay Provincial Police Office separately told reporters on Saturday that the five fatalities, the classmates Dave Cahilig, Jia Fernandez, Hannah Karanain, Kizzy Aganon and Myka Baynosa, were found one after another by emergency responders at a downstream stretch of the river, far from where they were last seen swimming together by villagers in nearby enclaves.

The five Grade 11 students who perished in the incident are students of Surabay National High School in RT Lim, one of the towns in Zamboanga Sibugay, home to mixed Muslim and Christian communities.

Six of their classmates, Wendell Cabucos, Rodel Boguillon, James Empas, Jonhry Talledo, Reymark Dacuba and Jannisher Salipmuksin, were spotted along the sides of the river and promptly rescued by emergency response teams and personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection and the RT Lim Municipal Police Station.

All six of them were immediately examined by physicians before they were endorsed to their parents by rescuers.

Talks and text messages are spreading around purporting that the students reportedly agreed to cut classes, go to the river for an outing, which turned awry and left five of them drowned, found lifeless by rescuers.

Municipal and barangay officials had told reporters that the 11 students were swimming at a portion of a wide river in Purok Santan when they were swept downstream by floodwaters spawned by heavy rains in mountain ranges in surrounding towns.

Radio reports in Cotabato City on Saturday stated that officials of the RT Lim local government unit and Zamboanga Sibugay provincial officials are to help the families of Cahilig, Fernandez, Karanain, Aganon and Baynosa facilitate their burial.

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