A 15-year-old boy drowned in a river near Alat Bridge in Barangay 185, Malaria, Caloocan City on Thursday, Feb. 2.
The Caloocan City Police Station (CCPS) said that the incident happened at around 3 p.m. when the victim, a Grade 9 student, was swimming with his friends in the river.
Cpl. Karl Piggangay of the CCPS Intelligence and Detective Management Section (IDMS) - North, investigator on case, said that according to the victim’s friends, he allegedly went to the middle and deeper part of the river where he drowned.
A construction worker, Leonardo Lizardo, 45, immediately went to the river after he heard the children asking for help.
The investigator said that Lizardo dived in to the river to rescue the victim but he had a hard time finding him.
The teenager was already dead when Lizardo found him, police said.
The incident was reported to the IDMS at around 4:10 p.m. on the same day.
Piggangay said that the victim told his mother that they would only go to a friend’s house when he left but did not mentioned to her that they would swim in the river.
The incident is still under investigation, he added.