CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A search team on Tuesday recovered the body of a woman who went missing while crossing the Pangasahan River in San Jose, Tarlac province, on Sunday, raising to six the number of fatalities in that incident, police said.
The body of Jasmin Solis, 27, was seen downstream of Pangasahan Dam, said Senior Insp. Sonny Silva, San Jose police chief.
Solis, a native of Lobo, Batangas province, was part of a group of 16 mountaineers and volunteers that was swept away by a strong river current on Sunday. Nine others were hurt.
Police said the group, which was part of a bigger group composed of 54 members, held an outreach program in Sitio Baag, an Aeta community in Barangay San Pedro.
They distributed school supplies to children in that community and were on their way to the San Jose town proper, some two hours away by foot, when the incident happened.
Solis’ body was turned over to her family at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. The bodies of Mark Raven Villanueva, Rocky Sumalinog, Jose Bernadette Ramirez, Jo Marie San Diego and Dooren Adriano were recovered on Monday after a 12-hour search that started at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Silva confirmed reports received by Tarlac Gov. Victor Yap that the charity mission was organized by OnePeak Manila and assisted by mountaineering group Game Nest.
Yap said the group changed trail and instead crossed the Pangasahan River to shorten the two-hour trek to an hour.
Yap, citing reports he received from an informant, said the suggestion to take another route came from a village council member in San Pedro. He said the volunteers and mountaineers put the decision to a vote.
“They insisted [on taking] the shortcut to lessen the trail length and time because they wanted to return to Manila [immediately],” the governor’s informant said in a text message.
The group, the informant said, did not coordinate the outreach activity with the local and provincial governments or hire local guides.
It is a standard practice in the area to hire one guide for every seven tourists, police and local officials said.
In Zambales province, three people, including an 8-year-old boy, were reported missing after they were swept away by a strong current in the waters off Candelaria town on Monday afternoon, Lt. Col. Monib Mamao, head of the Army’s 24th Infantry Battalion, said on Tuesday.
Rescue teams were scouring the waters of Candelaria to look for Joel Corpuz, 41; Ernesto Estella, 56; and Jayson Torno, 8, all residents of Barangay Malabon there, Mamao said.
Mamao said Torno went swimming with three other children in the waters of Barangay Malabon when they were swept out to sea by a strong current at 3:30 p.m. on Monday.
Corpuz, he said, came to rescue the children but was able to pull only three of them to safety.
Corpuz returned to the water to save Torno but he went missing minutes later, Mamao said. Reports from Tonette Orejas and Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon