Boy, 4, drowns in resort

By: Jennifer P. Rendon

A 4-year-old boy died of drowning in a resort swimming pool in San Enrique, Iloilo on Dec. 15, 2019.

JM Lebin, a resident of Barangay Man-it, Passi  City, was found at the bottom of a pool of Cabas-an Coldspring Resort at Barangay Compo around 11:20 a.m. Sunday.

Police Senior Master Sergeant Franklin Lirazan, San Enrique police investigator, said the victim’s mother was the one looking out for him when the incident happened.

The mother said she was holding on to her 2-year old child when she learned that JM was not already by her side.

The mother and her two children were sitting near the middle of the two adult pools prior to the incident.

The boy was allegedly stroking her mother while the other child was sitting on her lap.

But at 11:00 a.m., she noticed that the boy was nowhere in sight.

Thinking that the boy just wandered around the resort, she began looking for him at the store and the recreation area.

The boy’s body was found after a swimmer accidentally kicked him at the bottom of the main pool.

Lirazan said the resort has three pools – two for adults and a middle pool.

The main adult pool is around 6-foot deep while the other is 4-foot deep.

Two life guards were on duty at that time but one assisted visitors in another pool while the other was at the resort’s entrance when the incident happened.

Lirazan said the boy may have been unaware of the pool’s depth.

“There where steps before reaching the deepest portion of the pool. He could have stepped on it and failed to get up,” he said.

The boy was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.