2 farmers, 2 kids dead from electrocution in 2 accidents in Sarangani

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two farmers and two grade school children died from accidental electrocution in separate incidents in Kiamba and in Malapatan towns in Sarangani province within just six days. Two pupils of the Cabading Elementary School in Kiamba, Alex Jay Palmes and Clyde Glenn Tercio, both 11 years-old, got electrocuted on Wednesday last week, July 29, while harvesting Santol fruits from a tree in Barangay Luma in the municipality that they were supposed to bring to their school for a Nutrition Month celebration program. Palmes had unconsciously touched a power cable hanging close to the Santol fruits he was trying to pick, then causing his electrocution. Tercio, his classmate and close friend, tried to help pull him away but got electrocuted too. Radio reports on Thursday stated that Palmes and Tercio, known in their campus and in Barangay Luma for being close friends and treated each other like real siblings, were both declared dead on arrival by doctors at a hospital where emergency responders brought them for treatment. Officials of the Police Regional Office 12 told reporters on Thursday that local executives, among them two mayors, George Falgui and James Reganit of the adjoining Kiamba and Maitum towns in Sarangani, respectively, had extended financial assistance to the families of the two children. On Tuesday, two farmers, whose names were withheld by local officials while efforts to notify their relatives in other provinces are still underway, also both died instantly when they reportedly tried to move away an electrical cable dangling across a farm trail in Barangay Kihan in Malapatan. Local officials said on Thursday that the two men were on their way to their adjoining farm lots in an interior area in Barangay Kihan when they both got electrocuted, according to ranking personnel of the Sarangani Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and local government officials in Malapatan.