Search still ongoing for b’gay exec, fisher

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – Authorities continue to scour the rough seas in search of a 76-year-old fisherman who was swept by big waves after he fell from his bamboo raft in Badoc, Ilocos Norte and a barangay councilman carried by the rapids of Chico River in Kalinga last Wednesday.

Senior Inspector Leo Tolentino, Badoc police chief, said they have coordinated with authorities in adjoining Currimao town in their search for fisherman Alfredo Cahudoy.

Meanwhile, Isabelo Cayumba, a councilman in Barangay Bagumbayan in Tabuk City, Kalinga, went missing after he tried to swim across the Chico River to search for Maynard Barcellano, a member of the city’s disaster risk reduction and management council.

Barcellano himself was part of a search team looking for a drowning victim when their rubber boat overturned. Barcellano and a colleague, Arthur Tubban Dalse, drowned, while Cayumba went missing.