Boy left floating in Agusan River rescued

BUTUAN CITY - Authorities are preparing possible charges against a father of an 11-year-old boy who was hogtied and fastened to a raft that was left to float in Agusan River, a police report said Friday. According to the report, the victim was rescued in the city’s Barangay Agusan Pequeño Thursday afternoon, after floating for about 12 hours on a raft made of logs and banana trunks. Butuan City Police said security guard Rey Villamor of logging firm Agriwood Development and Resources Corporation and a certain Leopoldo Burian were the ones who first saw the boy tied tightly to a floating raft. The report said the boy, still in shock shortly after the rescue, narrated to police investigators how his angry father hogtied and fastened him tightly to the raft, pushing it into the river to float downstream. Villamor and Burian told police investigators they saw the raft with the boy floating in Agusan River between the boundary of Barangays Pagatpatan and Agusan Pequeňo in the city at around 4 p.m. Police suspected the boy was left to float in the river Wednesday morning from upstream Barangay San Vicente, some 10 kilometers from where he was found and rescued. PO1 Mary Ann Pagara of Butuan City Police Station 1 Women's and Children's Protection Desk said she really pitied the boy because he was “tired, weary, very hungry and in a state of shock." Pagara said the boy could have died if he was rescued much later. “The boy knew where their residence is but is afraid to accompany the police as if he is scared to death to his father" Pagara told reporters. Pagara said they will turn over the boy to the officer of the local Department of Social Welfare and Development. She also said police are preparing possible criminal charges against the boy’s father. — Ben Serrano/LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV