ITOGON, Benguet – The nine-day search for a 16-year-old college student swept away while swimming on the Agno River in Sitio Salapsap, Barangay Dalupirip here ended in heartbreak after search and retrieval teams found her body on Monday afternoon, Oct. 31.
Police identified the victim as Collen Chance P. Flores, a student of the University of Cordilleras in Baguio City.
The Itogon Municipal Police Station said on Oct. 23, Flores and friend Cherry Leigh Dumalog Pangang-at, 15, told their parents that they were going swimming in the river.
However, they were swept away by strong river current while swimming at 2 p.m.
Residents found Pangang-at holding onto a large rock and was safely pulled out of the river while Flores was nowhere to be seen.
A search and rescue operation led by Barangay Captain Paul Camantiles failed to locate the victim.
The following day, Itogon police, Itogon-Bureau of Fire Protection, Itogon Municipal Health Service Office, Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and community volunteers scoured the Agno River but they, too, failed to find the victim.
On Oct. 30, Sunday, at the height of tropical cyclone ‘’Paeng,’’ Mayor Bernard Waclin here personally led a search and rescue team but just like the others, they never located Flores.
On Monday, the body of the victim was found on the Agno River in Sitio Pangvasan, Barangay Dalupirip.
The mighty Agno River, it was learned, claimed the lives of three female high school students while swimming in 2019.