3 kids drown in Cordillera river

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – Three schoolchildren drowned as they were playing in a river in Sabangan, Mountain Province on Friday.

Mars Maleptey, 12; his brother Miko, 11, and their cousin Uriel Simultog, 11, were swept away by the currents in a river in Barangay Tambingan.

Responding village officials retrieved the children at around 10 a.m., but they were declared dead on arrival at the Luis Hora Memorial Regional Hospital.

The victims did not know how to swim, provincial police director Senior Superintendent Oliver Enmodias said.