10-yr.-old drowning victim from Apatan, Pinukpuk found after 3-day search

Pinukpuk, Kalinga – After three days of relentlessly trying to find the 10-year-old boy who drowned Friday afternoon, August 29, at the Apatan River, search and rescue teams, along with the community, finally found him.

The body of the boy was discovered on Monday morning, September 1, 2025, just about three kilometers away from where he disappeared.

The Office of Provincial Governor James Edduba, citing the information from OIC PDRRMO Bani Aclam, said that the 10-year-old boy was retrieved around 9:40 a.m.

Earlier reports stated that the boy, along with his friends, went swimming at the Apatan River on Friday afternoon and was dragged away by the strong current of the water.

On the weekend, due to the rain, increased water levels, and strong currents, the teams thought the body might have been swept to the lower parts of Cagayan, where the Saltan River ends. A search and retrieval operation was carried out to look for the victim. The various rescue teams that joined forces included Kalinga PDRRMO, Pinukpuk MDRRMO, Tabuk City CDRRMO, BFP Pinukpuk, and rescue and volunteers from Barangay Apatan, Piat, and Tuao.

On Monday, the MDRRMO Pinukpuk, BFP-Pinukpuk, and the community in Apatan decided to start from where the boy drowned, as they had a gut feeling that the body might have been caught or trapped by big rocks.

Indeed, a few hours after they started rummaging the area of the incident going down, the body of the boy was found under the big rock of the river near the Apatan Barangay Hall.

Governor Edduba, who conveyed his condolences and sympathies to the family of the victim, had already instructed the concerned provincial offices to provide assistance to the grieving family members.

The kin of the victim, meantime, thanked the government, stakeholders, and community volunteers for their efforts in locating the 10-year-old victim. They also appealed to the public to take down photos of the victim being retrieved posted online to lessen their grief.