5 kids drowned in Nueva Ecija-Aurora last Black Saturday

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, April 25, 2011-Police authorities reported that five youngsters drowned when they swam in rivers in Nueva Ecija and Aurora last Black Saturday.

In Nueva Ecija, the police identified the victims as Jeff Alquizal, 12, and Francis Valmonte, 10, both of Jaen, Nueva Ecija Ansly Constantino, 8, and John Vincent Marcos, both of San Leonardo town.

Senior Supt. Roberto Aliggayu, provincial police director said that three of those who died were found floating along the river in Barangay San Anton, San Leonardo at around 12 noon Saturday.

Constantino was declared dead-on-arrival at the Gonzales District Hospital by attending physicians an hour after he was found.

Initial investigations disclosed that three of the kids swam in the river accompanied by a 17-year-old sister of one of the victims even if they didn’t know how to swim. Police said they were swept by strong currents.

In Aurora province, a certain Michael Angelo Orpiano, nine years old, was declared dead-on-arrival at the Aurora Memorial Hospital after drowning in Sitio Amper, Barangay Gupa, Dipaculao town.

Senior Superintendent Jojo Gumban, the new Aurora provincial police director reported that Orpiano was with his parents having a picnic underneath the Amper bridge when he suddenly went missing. None of the family members noticed that he was swept by the strong currents. They only learned of it when they called out for him to eat lunch.

A witness, Eddie Rebueno said that the boy apparently was driven to a deep side of the river and because he could not swim, got drowned.

Amper is a popular tourist destination but it has also gained notoriety reportedly because every year, many reportedly died due to drowning. (Jason de Asis)

Angara urged the government to ensure delivery of health services in the Phl

SENATE OFFICE, Manila, April 25, 2011-Senator Edgardo J. Angara who authored Senate Bill No. 2629, the Community Health Delivery and Health Team Placement Act which seeks to establish Rural Health Centers in every town and barangay has urged the government for the creation of more health centers in the countryside to ensure the delivery of health services where he believes that it would dramatically decrease the high infant mortality rate nationwide.

Angara said that at least four medical professionals Local Health Unit should be manned to improve access to basic health facilities, infant and mother mortality rates in the countryside may be reduced.

He said that that his bill which is known as “An Act Establishing a Responsive Local Health Unit in Each City and Municipality to ensure delivery of primary health services and to provide a mechanism to ensure the placement of required health personnel in these Local Health Units and other government operated health facilities has been referred to the Health and Demography after the First Reading.

He added that more than 2 million babies are stillborn each year throughout the world and about half could have been prevented with proper health care during the pregnancy according to Lancet, a global medical journal, adding that most of these stillbirths were caused by delivery complications, infections, and congenital abnormalities.

“Unfortunately, this is common in developing countries like the Philippines. Due to the dearth of health care facilities and qualified medical professionals in the province, expectant mothers skip regular checkups which might detect curable and preventable illnesses in the unborn baby,” Angara said. (Jason de Asis)