ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews / 24 June) – While Filipinos celebrate the feast of San Juan (St. John the Baptist) by splashing water on each other or for a family bonding at sea, the revelry turned tragic when a woman drowned at sea and eventually died.
Beachgoers enjoy a boat ride off the coast of Barangay Buruun in Iligan City on Wednesday (24 June 2020), feast of St. John the Baptist, unmindful of their safety with the overloaded boat with nobody wearing a life vest. Patrolling Coast Guard personnel later told the operator to dock and offload the passengers to avoid accidents. MindaNews photo by RICHEL V. UMEL
Capt. Felix Rabago Jr., chief of Police Station 2, identified the victim as Marjie Daumar Musico, 44, of Purok 7 in Barangay Tipanoy, who went swimming in the coastal village of Buruun and went missing for an hour.
He said that based on the account of the victim’s daughter, Kimberly Musico, 17, Marjie was with her live-in partner, Santiago Nisnisan Inso Jr., 50, a resident of Purok 3B of Sitio Tonggo in Buruun.
She later decided to go on swimming, but was seen by beachgoers to be in distress around 4:45 p.m., then she went missing.
Inso alerted the neighbors and called on fishermen living nearby to help find Marjie. When they finally found her, they brought her by ambulance to the Mercy Community Hospital, about eight kilometers away.
But the attending physician said she was already dead by the time her body reached the hospital, Rabago said in a report.
Philippine Coast Guard Iligan-Lanao del Norte Station and Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteers patrol the seas of Iligan City and neighboring Linamon town of Lanao del Norte on Wednesday morning (24 June 2020), feast of St. John the Baptist, to warn beachgoers to be careful. MindaNews photo by RICHEL V. UMEL
The victim was known to have a medical history of hypertension, Rabago noted.
Earlier in the day, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) conducted a seaborne patrol aboard a rubber boat along the coastal area of Buruun and neighboring Linamon municipality in Lanao del Norte, warning beachgoers to be mindful of their safety.
The beaches of Buruun and Linamon are where Iliganons usually go for picnic.
The PCG and PCGA patrol approached an overloaded pump boat, with many children on board without life vests, and told the operator to dock and offload the passengers to avoid accident. (Richel V. Umel / MindaNews)
