AFTER almost 27 hours of search and rescue operation, rescuers have recovered the dead body of the missing five-year-old John Clark Ebua at around 5:45 pm Sunday, July 14, 2019.
Ebua went missing after he fell into an open box culvert while playing in the rain at Sitio Exoville, Barangay Basak-Pardo, Cebu City, Saturday afternoon, July 13.
Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said the child was already lifeless when rescuers located him near the opening of the Tagunol Bridge in Basak-Pardo.
“The culvert, which Ebua fell into, measures around 4 by 40 meters,” Tumulak said.
Members of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Management Office, together with other rescue units, started the retrieval operation past 2 p.m. last Saturday.
Basak-Pardo Barangay Captain Catalina Cabardo said they did not receive any reports from sitio leaders that there’s an uncovered box culvert in the area.
“Since we just assumed office, we haven’t anticipated yet that there are these kinds of culvert. We also haven’t received reports on it yet,” Cabardo said.
“Last 2010, there was a request for that project, like self-help in the barangay, but maybe they weren’t able to pay that much attention to it yet,” she added.
According to her, the victim was from the neighboring barangay of Kinsang-an, Cebu City.
“Maybe he was not familiar of the area,” she said.
She then assured that she will conduct meeting with the barangay council to address this problem. (SunStar Cebu)