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Search on for missing girl who fell from hanging bridge in NoCot

By Edwin Fernandez

August 17, 2020, 11:08 am

<p><strong>ONGOING SEARCH.</strong> Rescuers cross the Maridagao River in North Cotabato in search of 14-year-old Rosania Pidong who fell from a hanging bridge that connects Carmen and Banisilan towns over the weekend. The girl’s family remains hopeful that she survived the fall into the river, noting that she is a swimmer. <em>(Photo courtesy of North Cotabato - PDRRMO)</em></p>

ONGOING SEARCH. Rescuers cross the Maridagao River in North Cotabato in search of 14-year-old Rosania Pidong who fell from a hanging bridge that connects Carmen and Banisilan towns over the weekend. The girl’s family remains hopeful that she survived the fall into the river, noting that she is a swimmer. (Photo courtesy of North Cotabato - PDRRMO)

COTABATO CITY – Rescuers in North Cotabato resumed Monday their search for a 14-year-old girl who accidentally fell from a hanging bridge toward Maridagao River over the weekend.

“We resumed our rescue operations hoping against odds,” said Arnulfo Villaruz, action officer of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

About 30 persons from the municipal disaster rescue teams of the towns of Banisilan and Carmen, both in North Cotabato, are scouring the Maridagao River that divides Carmen and Banisilan towns to look for Rosania Pidong.

“We have asked the help of villagers near the Maridagao River to find the girl, dead or alive,” Villaruz said.

Villaruz said Pidong was crossing a cable hanging bridge from Barangay Busaon in Banisilan on her way home to Barangay Macabimban in Carmen when she fell into the river.

Kadir Saripada, Pidong's uncle, said his niece who is a swimmer would survive the river water.

However, witnesses claimed that Pidong's head hit a rock as she fell from the hanging bridge at 4 p.m. Saturday. (PNA)

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