Rescuers scramble to find boy swept away by river

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Rescuers have been searching since Sunday for a 13-year-old boy who was swept away by rampaging waters while bathing at one side of the Gumaga River in Libungan town.

Jimboy Gravena, a 6th grade pupil of the Gumaga Elementary School in Barangay Gumaga in Libungan, North Cotabato reportedly lost his balance and fell into the river, swelled by rains several days before.

“The river is murky and its downstream flow is so strong because of heavy rains in surrounding hinterlands last week,” said Chief Inspector Bernard Tayong of the Libungan municipal police.

Policemen and community leaders, led by Joe Diaz, chair of Barangay Gumaga, are scouring isolated channels of the river since Sunday to search for the missing Grevana.

Rescuers had earlier recovered from a shallow portion of the Simuay River in Sultan Kudarat town in nearby Maguindanao the body of farmer Gilbert Columbres, who was also drowned over the weekend while trying to cross a deep portion of the waterway.

Barangay officials have turned over the remains of Columbres to his family.

The local government unit of Buldon town, some 30 kilometers northwest of Sultan Kudarat, has also been searching for farmer Mastura Maungco, who was drowned last Wednesday in the flooded Nuyo River near his farm.

Relatives are convinced Maungco is dead and his cadaver was swept by floodwaters into one of the downstream tributaries of the Nuyo River.