Search workers in Kabacan, Cotabato province haul one of the teenagers who drowned while swimming at a river dam in Barangay Kilada, Matalam, Cotabato on Thursday, April 13, 2023. (Photo from the Kabacan municipal government)
COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao del Norte, Philippines — The Kabacan municipal government in Cotabato province is coming up with regulations preventing minors and school children from swimming along river dams.
Kabacan Mayor Evangeline Guzman said she would convene the local school board, which she chairs, to devise the policy after two junior high school students drowned on Thursday while swimming on a river dam in Barangay Kilada of nearby Matalam town.
Seven other students survived and were rescued, according to Mark Osoteo, Kabacan municipal information officer.
Osoteo refused to name the children as requested by immediate families, describing them only as 16-year-old male students of a local public school.
He said two of the rescued teenagers were in stable condition but remained in a hospital in Kabacan. The five others were safe.
“All are residents of Kabacan who went to the Kabacan River during lunch break on Thursday,” Osoteo said.
The nine teenage students were swimming in waist-level water about 200 meters from the floodgate. Then there was a sudden surge of water coming through the spillway.
“They did not expect the strong exit of water pressure cascading downstream, and they were carried away,” Osoteo said in a radio interview.
It was unclear what triggered the water surge or how the floodgate was opened since there was no heavy downpour at the time of the incident.
Mayor Guzman said the families of the two fatalities had been given financial assistance by the local government while the municipal social welfare office was extending aid to the families of other victims.