13-yr-old boy, 7-yr-old sister drown in Leyte river

TACLOBAN CITY — A 13-year-old boy and his younger sister drowned in a river in Palo town, Leyte on Wednesday afternoon.

The young fatalities were identified as John Israel Pedrosa, a Grade 7 student at the Palo National High School and his younger sister Jasmin Ieon, 7, a Grade 1 pupil at the Tacuranga Elementary School.

Chief Insp. Joselito Villas, police chief of the Palo town, said that based on their investigation, the girl was playing with a paper boat when she accidentally slipped into the river at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Sitio Kantuklin, Barangay Tacuranga, Palo.

“Her elder brother, who was with her at that time, tried to rescue her but he too drowned with his sister,” Villas said in a phone interview.

At the time, the river was swollen due to the incessant rains brought by the tail of a cold front.

Their bodies were recovered on Thursday morning far from where they were last seen, Villas said. /je