Capitol extending assistance to family of drowned siblings

CEBU - The Cebu provincial government will be extending assistance to the family of the three siblings who died of drowning at the Sungabon falls in barangay Campo Siete, Minglanilla last Saturday.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia announced yesterday that the province will extend assistance to the Geonson family and will shoulder the burial expenses for the three victims.

Siblings Michelle, 21; Charity, 12; and Erwin, 7, all surnamed Geonson, were only supposed to be having a stroll in the vicinity of the falls when the incident happened.

Garcia has already instructed Provincial Social Welfare officer Marivic Garces to coordinate with the parents of the victims. “The province is here to help,” the governor said.

Reports said both the parents of the victims were not there during incident as their father, Eduardo, was allegedly gathering firewood while their mother, Porperia, was washing clothes nearby.

The incident occurred when Erwin jumped into the 10-feet deep water but apparently he doesn’t know how to swim. When Charity saw her brother trying to keep himself afloat, she also jumped into the water in order to save him.

But like Erwin, Charity did not also know how to swim.

Seeing her two siblings struggling out of the water, Michelle also jumped in hoping to save them but she also did not know how to swim and all of them drowned.

Meanwhile, Garcia also asked Garces yesterday to coordinate with the eight-year-old boy, Johnwell Polleros, who saved his one-year-old sister Kaila from their burning house.

The boy suffered first degree burns on his feet, ears and arms.

Although Johnwell is from Cebu City, the governor said she is not barred from extending assistance to his family such as providing them rice, clothes, milk and even ointment for the boy’s burns.

“We will extend assistance. Motabang man gani ta sa taga-Iloilo, Guimaras, taga-Southern Leyte, kani pang Sugbuanon,” Garcia said. –Garry B. Lao/WAB (THE FREEMAN)