BALANGA CITY, Bataan -- A 10-month-old baby drowned inside a neighbor’s flooded shanty here on Tuesday.
Mary Joyce Andaya, 16, claimed that she was fast asleep and was not aware that her child fell into the floodwater from the bamboo bench they slept on.
Andaya said it was already 4 a.m. when she fell asleep and did not notice that her daughter, Jane, fell into the floodwater following a heavy rainfall the night before.
She said that it was past 6 a.m. when they found her baby already floating in the knee-deep floodwater.
“Magkatabi kami ng anak kong natutulog sa upuang kawayan. Nasa loob na bahagi ng upuan ang anak ko samantalang ako’y nasa bukana. Magkadikit kami. Nakita ko na lang siyang nakalutang. Hanggang tuhod ang tubig (My daughter and I were sleeping together on a bamboo bench. She was on the inside part of the bench while I was outside. We were lying close together. I just saw her floating on the floodwater that was knee-high),” Andaya said.
She said she and her baby slept in their neighbor’s house because their house was recently destroyed by monsoon rains and Tropical Storm Karding.
“That day we monitored the rising floodwater and we were only able to sleep at dawn,” Nelson Mamalateo, owner of the shanty said.
He said the flooding in their area was caused both by high tide and heavy rains.
Doctors at the Bataan General Hospital declared the baby dead upon arrival. Her remains now lie at the barangay hall. (PNA)
