Franco Hernandez, 26, dancer and member of boy band Hashtags, died on Saturday evening in Davao Occidental when a wave hit the motorboat he and his girlfriend Janica Floresca were riding.
According to an ABS-CBN News report, Hernandez and Floresca, who both don’t know how to swim, were in the water for 30 minutes before the boat operators were able to pull them back on the boat.
Hernandez was already unconscious.
Reports did not say if either of them were wearing life jackets.
“I shouted to, ‘Love laban lang (please fight)’ then I saw he just closed his eyes and stopped breathing. it was so hard because we were drowning,” Floresca said yesterday.
The boat operators tried to resuscitate Hernandez using CPR but could not get him to breathe.
He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
Floresca also shared her last video with Hernandez on Instagram before they boarded the motorboat.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbYNnM6FqUo/
“You’re so unfair, my love. You told me you want to make more memories with me, but why is it like this?!” she wrote in Tagalog. “Please, don’t break your promise to me. We have so many more dreams, my love!” Come back, please. I miss you so much. I love you, you are the love of my life.”
The Hashtags have been mainstays on ABS-CBN noontime show It’s Showtime since 2015. Hernandez only joined the group last February.
