“I JUST hope you are happy wherever you are now. You know that I will always care for you. I will never forget you.”
This was Julie Ann Nacion’s message to her five-year-old son, John Clarke Ebua, who died when he fell into an uncovered box culvert while playing in the rain in Barangay Basak-Pardo last Saturday afternoon, July 13, 2019.
Nacion said her son wanted to grow up to be a policeman.
It took almost 27 hours for rescuers to recover his body Sunday at the opening of the Tagunol Bridge, about a kilometer from the culvert.
She said it was hard to accept that she lost her only child. She was at work when the incident happened.
“The night before that happened, we were just playing, teasing each other. Even in the morning, it was just a normal day. He was sweet,” she said. Ebua is the last name of the child’s father. He and Nacion are not married.
Nacion said she did not know about the open box culvert behind the house they were renting as they did not usually pass there.
Elmer Tabanas, one of the rescuers who went inside the culvert, said the culvert was deep and full of garbage.
Nacion said: “They (authorities) should close the culvert opening. Nobody wants the same tragedy to happen. Nobody wants to have another John Clarke.”
“To all the parents out there, I hope you will take care of your child. It is not easy to lose a child. I still could not accept that he is gone,” she added.
Nacion said she does not plan to file any complaint against any party since she believed what happened was an accident.
She thanked rescuers for locating her son.
John Clarke’s wake is at the Birhen sa Regla Chapel at Sitio Lower Paradise 2 in Barangay Kinasang-an Pardo until Wednesday. His body will then be transferred to Dumanjug, his hometown. His burial will be at the Bulak Catholic Cemetery on Sunday, July 21. (WBS)