Maritime trainee cop drowns under bridge

CEBU, Philippines - A maritime police applicant died after he drowned when he went swimming near his bunkhouse under the Marcelo Fernan Bridge in Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City yesterday morning.

Edidon Diaz, 27, of Iloilo City is among the 30 Philippine National Police maritime applicants who are currently billeted at the Maritime-7 headquarters in Lapu-Lapu City for a weeklong training before they proceed to Manila for another series of exercises.

Police Officer 3 Lydo Pinos of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office Homicide Section revealed prior to the incident, Diaz and two of his colleagues, also applicants of PNP Maritime Office, namely Yasser Sausuna, 27, and David Mumbai, 21, both of Aljuy, Iloilo City, went swimming at 10:45 a.m. based on the closed-circuit television camera file.

After 10 minutes, according to Sausuna and Mumbai, they went out of the water and went back to the bunkhouse.

Without their knowledge, Diaz went back to the water and again started swimming. 

The CCTV file video recorded that at 11:05 a.m., Diaz was seen again swimming but at 11:08 Diaz submerged and never surfaced anymore.

It was during lunchtime that both Sausuna and Mumbai noticed that Diaz was not around, thus they began looking for him.

While searching, they remembered that there was a CCTV nearby and this prompted them to review it and that's how they found that the victim might have drowned.

He was then seen lying unconscious on the seabed and brought ashore.

The friends immediately sought the help of their superiors and the victim was rushed to Lapu-Lapu City Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival by an attending physician.

Although police initial investigation disclosed that there was no foul play over his death, Diaz's body was still subjected to an autopsy to determine the real cause of his death.

His parents were also already informed of the incident and will be coming to Cebu at the soonest possible time. (FREEMAN)