Joshua Veloso was doing well in school.
His grade 1 adviser told his mother Alma yesterday that the quiet 7-year-old pupil in Lapu-Lapu City would be promoted to grade 2 in June.
Help Joshua study well because he needs more coaching, she was told.
While the housewife happily listened to the teacher’s good news in school, she had no idea her eldest son was in grave danger.
Joshua was chased into the sea in barangay Buaya and beaten up by youngsters as he was walking home in the afternoon.
Joshua didn’t know how to swim.
He was later found unconscious underwater by a classmate who was able to run away when the bullies started taunting them.
The attack, witnessed by some barangay Buaya residents, resulted in the arrest of two young suspects.
Police turned over the minors to the Department of Social Work of Lapu-Lapu City in compliance with the law, which prohibits placing underage offenders in jail.
The victim’s father, Arnold, 39, said there were ten youngsters in the attack based on the account of a classmate Jun (not his real name).
The bullies taunted the two pupils, and ran after them, throwing stones and coconut husks.
His classmate ran away, but Joshua, whose bag fell to the ground, lagged behind.
One bully pushed him toward the sea behind a seawall.
“Ila lang gyud gi-tripan, mga gang-gang man gud na sila. nakasuyop siguro to’g rugby,” said Arnold, a jeepney driver.
(They just took a fancy to him. They’re youth gang members who were probably sniffing rugby.)
Joshua was pushed head first into the water. He must have hit his head because there’s a bruise on the left side of his face, said the father crying.
A 51-year-old Buaya resident Wilne Morden said she saw the youths pestering the boys and reprimanded them but they just ignored her.
According to Jun, a 15-year-old pushed Joshua to the sea and three others boxed him.
Jun was able to run away and hide.
When their persecutors left, he looked for Joshua but couldn’t find him. He said he used a bamboo strip to clear away seaweeds floating on the water. A man living near the area swam around and found the boy unconscious under the water in the muddy seashore. He was brought to Mactan Doctors’ Hospital, but it was too late.
Joshua had asked permission to go home ahead from school.
His teacher, Lyn Mosqueda, who had called in his mother to tell her about his advancement in class, remembers telling him go straight home and not detour for a swim.
Later when Alma, the mother, headed home, she passed a group of people talking about a child who had drowned.
Out of curiosity, Alma went to the seashore where a neighbor told her that the victim was Joshua.
She rushed to the hospital, saw his school bag and knew it was Joshua.
The family is waiting for the police to file charges.
Joshua was the eldest child with a 5-year-old brother and 3-month-old sister.
Police at the women’s desk police told the grieving parents to come back today to meet the parents of the two apprehended minors.
Joshua’s remains were brought home for a vigil in sitio Ka-aryang. He will be buried on Monday next week.
Barangay councilor Nene Boyco donated the coffin.
“He was a silent boy but he’d work hard at home, and was diligent in his studies,” said his father Arnold, a jeepney driver plying the Punta-Engano-Highway route in Mandaue.
“But we never got to talking about what he wanted to be when he grew up.”