A fisherman was found killed and eaten by a saltwater crocodile in Palawan on Monday, three months after a similar incident happened to his 12-year-old niece.
The 43-year-old fisherman, identified as Rebebenti Ladja, was found dead in a swamp at around 4pm after his family and friends got together to look for him.
“They found his mangled remains at the swamp that night, with a huge crocodile beside it. The crocodile had consumed the upper half of his body,” Balabac police officer Allan Vic Macasil told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
Ladja went to the river on Sunday to catch crabs but never returned.
“The victim usually goes home before or shortly after lunch. But when he didn’t, the family sought the help of the barangay.” barangay (village) chairman Kamaria Ami told government-run publication Philippine News Agency (PNA).
“We went to where he was last seen in the river, then we poked the water and the crocodile went out — it was huge, almost seven feet, and then it let go of the victim’s lower extremity.”
The incident happened three months after Ladja’s 12-year-old niece was attacked by a crocodile, also in Balabac, Palawan. She was out to fetch water with his siblings but was dragged away by the crocodile. She has not been found.
Macasil said this was the fifth crocodile attack in Balabac in less than six years.
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