By: Martin A. Sadongdong
The Pasay City Police have identified two teenagers who drowned in Manila Bay, part of the seaside of a mall in Pasay City, a police report said Saturday.
A report by Senior Police Officer Giovanni Arcinue, case investigator, said the victims were Maria Rowena Cinco, 13, of Barangay La Pas, Makati City and one alias “Jeryan,” a scavenger, about 10 to 15-years-old.
Arcinue said Nonito Binata, 33, a stay-in warehouseman in a spa at SM Mall of Asia (MOA), found the floating body of Cinco around 6 a.m. Friday near Diokno Bridge in Pasay City.
He promptly reported the incident to an on-duty guard at SM MOA until a team from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) fished-off Cinco’s body and moved it along the breakwaters of Seaside Terminal Esplanade of SM MOA.
While waiting for a team from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO), authorities then spotted the floating body of Jeryan not far from where Cinco’s body was found.
They retrieved the body of the boy using a boat, Arcinue said. The family of Cinco identified the body of the teenage girl late Friday while fellow scavengers identified Jeryat only through his alias.
Prior to the discovery of the bodies, police investigation showed Cinco and six of her friends, all minors, were seen swimming at Bay Boulevard near Diokno Bridge around 1 p.m. Thursday.
Cinco, who reportedly did not know how to swim, was carried by the strong water current in the middle of the sea.
Jeryan, who was watching them, volunteered to rescue Cinco but they both failed to resurface from the water.