Bohol schoolkids drown in river

STILL in their school uniforms, three pupils drowned after they went swimming in a river instead of attending their afternoon classes in Tubigon, Bohol, yesterday.

Police identified the fatalities as Allysa Loren Cifra, Mica Lapesigue and Gloriel Torren—all 7-year-old girls from barangay Ilijan Norte and grade 1 pupils of Avelino Chagas Elementary School.

Police said the three girls and another classmate, Lisa Mae Ferrer, also 7, were on a lunch break after their teacher Ramil Bagolor dismissed classes at 11:30 a.m.

Alyssa Loren, who stayed with her grandmother nearby, went home to have lunch while the rest ate their packed lunch at the school campus.

SPO4 Fernando Peroramas, investigator of the Tubigon police station, said Alyssa Loren returned to school after lunch and decided with the three other girls to go swimming  in a river in sitio Palayan, barangay Panaytayon, which is around 2 kilometers from the school.

Lisa Mae told Peroramas that while they were walking on a footbridge, her three classmates jumped off the water thinking the water level was shallow.

Lisa Mae said the girls urged her to follow their suit but she stayed on the bridge.

Lisa Mae told police that she began to worry when the girls did not surface from the water. So she rushed to a nearby house to get help.

The residents headed by former captain Junior Sevilla, village councilor Vidal Mascariñas and municipal health officer Dr. Bernabe Bob Batausa immediately responded to the incident.

Residents looked for the girls and  found the bodies of the two children who were still holding hands. A few meters away, the body of the third girl was also found underwater.

Peroramas said the children were no longer brought to the hospital  after Dr. Batausa declared them dead.

The parents, though saddened about the incident, did not blame the school.

Peroramas said the girls’ teacher, Bagolor, checked for the whereabouts of the children after noticing their absence in his class at 1 p.m.

Bagolor also went to the house of Alyssa Loren’s grandmother and was told that Alyysa Loren already returned to school after having lunch.

Peroramas said the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of the school will meet to discuss measures  that would prevent a repeat of the accident./correspondent jhunnex napallacan