MANILA, Philippines—An eight-year-old girl drowned on Tuesday night in a water-filled hole intended for a septic tank at a bus terminal in Cubao, Quezon City.
Police investigators have yet to rule out foul play in the death of Jasmine Longabela, a resident of Lantana Street in Barangay Immaculate Conception, Cubao, due to the conflicting statements of her two playmates who were with her when she drowned.
According to SPO1 Pascual Fabreag of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, Longabela drowned around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a 5-foot-deep hole at least 5 feet wide and 10 feet long inside the Partas bus terminal compound at the corner of Aurora Boulevard and Arayat Street in Cubao.
Security guards brought her to Quirino Memorial Medical Center but doctors declared the victim dead on arrival. Fabreag said that one of the girls told investigators that they were playing inside the compound when a man pushed the victim, causing her to fall into the water-filled hole.
The other girl, however, said that no one had pushed the victim and that she fell into the hole by accident. According to Fabreag, the girls frequently played in the compound, making a game out of hiding from security guards.
“They may have been in the middle of that game when the victim slipped and accidentally fell in,” he said as he added that they would continue their investigation of the girl’s death.