Kin want to know why student drowned during press confab

MALITA, DAVAO OCCIDENTAL — Relatives of a Grade 10 student who joined a Department of Education (DepEd) school event in Digos City on Saturday, Nov 17,  but who ended up drowned in a resort, demanded answers as to why it happened.

Police said Paul Anthony Sarmiento Pulmano, 16, a Grade 10 student at the Mariano Peralta National High School here, was in Digos City for the regional school press conference (RSPC) when he later drowned in a resort.

Pulmano was seen on CCTV jumping into the swimming pool of the San Vale Resort around 5:51 pm on Saturday only minutes before a swimmer found his body underwater.

Earlier, Pulmano and a group of other students arrived at the resort with their coach, Cindy Pacis, after joining the DepEd-organized regional school press conference at the Digos Central elementary school.

After the resort’s swimming coach failed to revive him, rescuers brought the victim to the hospital where a physician declared him dead on arrival.

Supt. Deozar Almasa, city police chief, said the attending physician diagnosed the victim to have died of cardiopulmonary arrest due to drowning.

Pulmano’s aunt, Gina Sarmiento Prestoza, said the boy’s mother was not aware yet that her son would be attending the RSPC.

She said the family wanted to know the real story why he drowned.