2 girls, 3 boys drown in Negros Occ., Cebu

BACOLOD CITY—Nine-year-old Analyn Alegado tried to save her younger sister from drowning on Tuesday but both drowned in an irrigation canal in San Enrique, Negros Occidental.

Senior Insp. Hector Balbon, San Enrique police chief, said the two sisters were playing about 9 a.m. when Angel, 3, fell into the irrigation canal in Purok Society, Barangay Tabao Baybay.

Analyn jumped into the water to try to save her younger sister, said Balbon. But she, too, failed to surface.

The members of a rescue group and policemen of San Enrique found the body of Angel about 10 a.m. while the body of her sister was recovered an hour later.

The two girls were both declared dead on arrival at  Valladolid District Hospital, Balbon said.

The drowning incident in Negros Occidental came two days after the death of three brothers in Cebu who were swept by strong river current while washing their clothes on Sunday.

They were identified as Rodmar Flores, 8, and his two younger brothers  Rafael, 4, and Raymart, 6, from Aloguinsan town, Cebu.

Police said the children went to the river about 10 a.m. on Sunday to wash their clothes. But their mother, Maribeth, who had given birth to her fifth child two weeks ago, got worried when her children failed to come home.

She asked her grandfather and neighbors to help look for the three children.

But only the clothes were found by the river.

When the searchers checked the river again, they saw the slippers of the children. After searching the neck-deep water, they found the lifeless bodies of the three children about 1 p.m.  on Sunday.

The Flores couple had two other children, Roy Jr., 2, and Rosebie, 2 weeks old. Carla P. Gomez and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas