Police probing death of Pangasinan boy allegedly mauled by playmates

MANGALDAN, PANGASINAN—The police are investigating the death of an 11-year-old boy, who died in a hospital on Jan. 7, days after he was allegedly mauled by his playmates on Dec. 28.

The boy was taken to the town’s infirmary on Jan. 5 when he complained of fever.

On Jan. 7, he was taken to the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital in San Carlos City, where he died at 1:30 p.m. for septic shock, pneumonia and blunt abdominal trauma

“We hope to establish the proximate cause of his death in an autopsy scheduled on Monday (Jan. 14),” said Supt. Jay Baybayan, Mangaldan police chief, on Friday (Jan. 11).

He said witnesses informed the police that the boy’s playmates — aged 9, 10 and 12 — dragged him out of a Christmas party at Barangay (village) Salay and beat him up.

“We have spoken with their families. The [dead] boy’s parents had intimated that they will file charges against the three children,” Baybayan said.

Rowena de Guzman, social welfare and development officer, said the three playmates have been traumatized by the boy’s death and from the taunting of other children who call them bullies.

The children were undergoing counseling, she said, while the Mangaldan government provided the boy’s family with burial assistance.

Baybayan said the police have requested the hospital to provide it with the boy’s medical records, including medicines and the hospital procedures he underwent prior to his demise.

Baybayan said investigators were also validating another report that the boy fell from a mango tree on Jan. 1, to determine if that could explain the boy’s condition before his death./lzb