AUTHORITIES have retrieved the body of a 15-year-old student who drowned after swimming with his friends in a flooded river in Palo, Leyte.

Kent Jamer Mandahuyan, a grade 9 student and resident of Barangay San Jose, Palo, was last seen together with his friends in the river of Barangay Arado around 11 a.m. Wednesday, February 10, 2021.

The sudden strong current of the river carried them, but unluckily, the victim was not able to get out of the water, police said in the report.

The family of the victim exerted an effort to find him after the incident, according to the responding personnel of Palo Municipal Police Station led by Corporal Sefrem Lincopenes, under the supervision of Major Aldo Mendiola.

Around 9 a.m. Thursday, February 11, two barangay tanods of San Barangay San Jose found the victim's cadaver at the rice field of the said barangay.

The body was brought to Schistosomiasis Hospital in Palo and was subsequently transferred to Sitio Caloogan in Barangay San Jose for the victim's wake. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)