2 preschool siblings drown in Cotabato river

COTABATO CITY — Rescuers found lifeless on Sunday, July 20, two preschool siblings who were swept away by strong floodwaters near the Kabacan River in Barangay Aringay, Kabacan, Cotabato, two days earlier.

Officials of the Kabacan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office confirmed to reporters on Monday, July 21, that two preschool siblings, six and four years old, respectively, were last seen playing near the Kabacan River in Barangay Aringay last Friday, July 18.

Local executives said combined local government emergency responders from Cotabato’s neighboring Kabacan, Carmen and Matalam towns first found the four-year-old-boy on Saturday afternoon in the downstream stretch of the Kabacan River and, subsequently, recovered the cadaver of his six-year-old sister several hours later.

Barangay Officials said the siblings were swept away by rampaging floodwaters while at the river and disappeared.

Kabacan Mayor Evangeline Pascua-Guzman had provided the parents of the two children with initial monetary support that they could use in facilitating the burial of the two children.