AFTER almost 24 hours of search, authorities finally found Rodnic Labitad’s body floating off the seawaters of Talisay City around 10 a.m. yesterday.
Members of the Bantay Dagat, Bureau of Fire Protection Rescue Team, Region Reaction Unit, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management (CCDRRM) and other rescue units set up light towers and searched for Labitad, 23, all night Sunday but failed.
Labitad was swimming with friends when his slippers suddenly drifted along with the current toward the sea.
“He tried to reach for his slippers but he didn’t realize that the current was too strong since it was low tide,” said Executive Director Alvin Santillana of CCDRRM.
Around 4 a.m. yesterday, South Road Properties guards spotted the body but it again submerged underwater before the team could retrieve it.
They again spotted the body floating around 10 a.m. and successfully retrieved it.
Police said the victim had a wound in his face and suspected he must have been hit by a stone underwater.
Gloria Labitad, the victim’s mother, said she was unaware that her son was in trouble while she was attending a funeral last Sunday./EDISON DELOS ANGELES