A 10-month-old baby drowned in floodwater while his mother was asleep in Balang, Bataan on Tuesday.
According to GMA News’ Balitambayan, the child lived in a community located near a river, which overflowed after a heavy downpour. He and his mother went to sleep on a bench outside their neighbor’s house.
The baby slipped off the bench and into the knee-deep floodwater.
The 16-year-old mother of the child said she thought they were on higher and safer ground when they were evacuated from their home. She said she kept guard of her baby, but fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning.
“I really didn’t feel that my child woke up, that [my baby] fell [in the floodwater]. I really didn’t feel it, even the splash of water,” the mother told GMA News in Filipino.
Balitambayan‘s report added that the child was brought to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.
With devastating floods hitting the Philippines year after year, there seems to be no end in sight to these annual disasters, especially in areas near rivers and dams.
