2 preschool siblings drowned in Cotabato river – BusinessWorld Online
COTABATO CITY — Rescuers on Sunday found two preschool siblings lifeless after being swept away by rampaging floodwaters while at one side of the Kabacan River in Barangay Aringay in Kabacan, Cotabato last Friday.
Officials of the Kabacan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office confirmed to reporters on Monday, that the six-year-old Jackelyn L. Saidona and his four-year-old brother, Johayrin were last seen playing at one spot in the Kabacan River in Barangay Aringay last Friday.
Local executives said combined local government emergency responders from Cotabato’s neighboring Kabacan, Carmen, and Matalam towns first found the boy on Saturday afternoon in the downstream stretch of the Kabacan River and, subsequently, recovered the cadaver of his sister several hours later.
Barangay officials said the Saidona siblings were swept away by rampaging floodwaters while at the river and disappeared.
Kabacan Mayor Evangeline P. Guzman had provided the parents of the two children with initial monetary support that they could use in facilitating the burial of the two children. — John Felix M. Unson