4 kids drown

BOHOL—Four schoolchildren drowned in separate cases in this province and Davao City on Tuesday afternoon.

Three Grade 1 pupils of Avelino Chagas Elementary School in Barangay Iligan Norte, Tubigon town, Bohol, went swimming in a river about 2 p.m. on Tuesday instead of heading back to their afternoon classes.

But Allysa Loren Cifra, Mica Lapesigue and Gloriel Torren, all 7 years old and from Barangay Ilijan Norte, didn’t know the water was deep when they jumped into the river in Sitio Palayan, Barangay Panaytayon, around 2 kilometers from the school.

The children failed to surface and had drowned. They were still in their school uniform when their bodies were retrieved by residents, said SPO4 Fernando Peroramas, investigator of the Tubigon Police Station.

In Davao City, an 11-year-old boy drowned when a floods struck Barangay Gumalang in Baguio district there on Tuesday afternoon.

Joey Demayoga, a Grade 3 pupil, was on his way home when the flood struck a pineapple plantation canal past 3 p.m. The boy’s body was found near where he drowned. Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao