COTABATO CITY — A mother and her two children perished after they fell off a footbridge that crumbled in the middle of a heavy downpour and into a rampaging river in South Upi, Maguindanao on Saturday.
Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares, police regional director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (PNP-ARMM), identified the fatalities as Linda Modunggel and her children, Melanie, 11, and Ritchel, 1.
“The victims are members of the Teduray tribe living in the mountains of South Upi,” Mijares said on Monday.
In a report, the South Upi municipal disaster risk reduction and management council, and the local police said that the victims tried to cross a makeshift bamboo footbridge on the Bantek River in Barangay Bantek at about 4 p.m. amid heavy rains when the tragedy struck.
As they fell, witnesses said, the victims were swept downstream by the strong river current. Their dead bodies were later recovered downstream one after another.
Officials said the water level at Bantek River usually rises during heavy downpour upstream, and would violently break on riverbanks with turbulent, swirling waters.
The local government of South Upi said it has already extended financial assistance to the victims’ relatives for burial expenses. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
