CEBU CITY – The lifeless bodies of two kids, aged five and three, were found floating in the waters of Ginatilan town, some 135.4 kilometers southwest of Cebu City on Saturday morning.
Residents first spotted the body of Mark Lejano, 3, floating near the seashore of Barangay (village) Poblacion beside Ginatilan’s Millennium Park, at around 11 a.m., said Ginatilan Police Station desk officer SP02 Neil Mansueto.
The residents tried to revive the boy and then brought him to the MJ Cuenco Memorial Hospital in nearby town of Malabuyoc. But doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
At around 11:20 a.m., the residents fished out the body of Mark’s elder brother Gerald, 5, in the waters of Barangay San Roque, around 200 meters away from where Mark’s body was spotted.
Gerald was then brought to the same hospital but was also pronounced dead on arrival. P01 Carl Brion Pielago, one of the responding policemen, said the two kids were still wearing their t-shirts and shorts.
Pielago said the kids went swimming at the sea, some 20 meters from the Millennium Park, at past 9 a.m. based on the accounts of some people in the area.
Some witnesses also told police that they saw the kids walking at the seawall. But no one witnessed what happened. SP02 Mansueto for his part theorized that one of the kids accidentally fell into the sea and the other tried to help him, so they both drowned.
Police investigators learned later that the parents of the two children, who lived in the mountain barangay of Malatbo, were selling vegetables and fruits at the town’s public market which is just adjacent to the Millennium Park.
The parents, Leonardo and Jackylyn Lejano, both 27 years old, arrived later in the area and were inconsolable when they saw the bodies of their two children.
Pielago said Leonardo told him that they did not usually bring the kids to the market. It just happened that no one could take care of the two kids at home, so they decided to bring them to work.
Pielago said Leonardo claimed that he even gave Gerald P5 to buy food and asked him and his younger brother not to leave. However, he later noticed that his sons had disappeared.
Pielago said the father tried to find his children but failed, until he learned the news from the people about the two children floating at sea.