5 kids drown in Pangasinan creek

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan, Philippines—Five children, including three siblings, drowned in a creek in Bugallon, Pangasinan, on Tuesday, police said.

Chief Insp. Dominic Poblete, town police chief, said Rose Ann Ambos, 14, and her brothers Nelson, 12, and Carlo Marco, 11, and their friends Christian Lee Salazar, 10, and Manuel Bogayong, went to the creek in Barangay (village) Hacienda on Tuesday to swim. They were accompanied by the Ambos siblings’ parents, whom police did not name.

However, when they arrived in the area at 2 p.m., the children immediately ran toward the creek and jumped into the water. Poblete said the children were not aware that the creek was 1.52 meters deep (5 feet) and the current was strong due to the recent rains.

When the children struggled and pleaded for help, the parents of the Ambos siblings could not do anything because they were frail, he said. The parents looked for people to help the children but it was too late as rescuers reached the area at past 4 p.m.

The creek is at the foot of the mountains in Barangay Hacienda and far from residential areas.