2 teenage students from Cebu Int’l School in outreach program in Bataan drowned

MARIVELES, Bataan - Two teenaged students, a Korean national and a Filipino-American, on an outreach program for Aeta children, drowned while swimming at the Visai or Kanawan Batis waterfalls in Morong, Bataan Wednesday afternoon.

 

Senior Insp. Jeffrey Onde, Morong police chief, identified the fatalities as Korean Jaebak Jung, 13, and Filipino-American Kyle Julian Weckman, 14, both students of Cebu International School in Cebu City.

 

He said the victims were among 42 students and five teachers from the Cebu school who arrived Wednesday morning at the Kanawan Elementary School in Barangay Binaritan, Morong to donate school supplies, conduct a feeding program, and play games with Aeta children.

 

At 1 p.m. Wednesday, the group went swimming at the falls some 15 minutes’ hike from the school, police said. Onde could not say how the students drowned. “Medyo malalim ang waterfalls at malakas ang current,” he said. 

 

Dr. Emma Bugay, Morong municipal health officer, declared Jung dead on arrival at 2:30 p.m. 

 

The next day, at 8:30 a.m. of Thursday, a rescue team from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, the police, and members of Womb Explorers/Wonders of Morong retrieved the body of Weckman. 

 

Bugay performed post-mortem examination on the two victims before the bodies were transferred. 

 

She said Jung was brought to the Loyola Memorial Homes in Guadalupe, Makati City, while Weckman was flown to Cebu after being embalmed in Olongapo City. –Ernie B. Esconde/KG, GMA News