2 students drown in Pangasinan

DAGUPAN CITY — Two students drowned on Friday (Nov. 2) at the Abagatanen Bay in the Pangasinan town of Agno, police said on Saturday (Nov. 3).

John Paul Corilla, 13, of Antipolo City, and Karl Martin Valdez of Bani town in Pangasinan, were found by their relatives floating unconscious in the waters off Barangay (village) Macaboboni about 4 p.m.

They were taken to a clinic in Bani town but a doctor there declared them dead on arrival.

Senior Insp. Franco Catalan, Agno police chief, said the two were among the hundreds of people who visited the beach on All Soul’s Day.

The families of Corilla and Valdez may not have immediately noticed that the students were swept by huge waves because of the unusually big number of people in the beach at the time, he said.

Because of huge waves, village officials had repeatedly warned beachgoers to refrain from swimming, Catalan said. GABRIEL CARDINOZA