ILOILO City – Seven municipalities suspended classes yesterday due to heavy monsoon rains while on Sunday a nine-year-old boy from Miag-ao, Iloilo drowned in a river.
According to Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) chief Jerry Bionat, Condrado Eula’s body was retrieved yesterday on the shores of Barangay Cabasi, Guimbal town around 4:20 a.m.
A resident of Barangay Bangladan, Miag-ao, Eula crossed a river in Sitio Camarin, Barangay Calampitao, Guimbal around 5:20 p.m. on his way home from an uncle’s house in Sitio Bangi, Barangay Calampitao, Igbaras.
According to Senior Antonio Monreal Jr., acting chief of police of Guimbal, Eula was with his 17-year-old sister. The siblings were swept away by the strong water current of the river but the sister managed to swim to safety and sought help.
The Miag-ao municipal police station conducted a search and rescue operation but failed to find Eula.
Meanwhile, according to Bionat, the towns that suspended classes yesterday were Dumangas, Alimodian, San Miguel, San Joaquin, New Lucena, Miag-ao, kag Pavia.
The water levels in rice fields and rivers rose, he said but clarified that no towns reported having suffered from flooding due to heavy rains.
On the other hand, two bridges in Miag-ao that became impassable on Sunday due to rising levels of floodwater were passable again yesterday, according to Ronan John Austria, chief of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
One was a baily bridge for light vehicles and the other was an overflow bridge for heavy trucks.
These were temporary detour bridges because the Tumagboc Bridge in Barangay Poblacion, Miag-ao was still being rehabilitated./PN
