By Henry Empeño | July 23, 2024

SAN NARCISO, Zambales — The Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) on Monday confirmed the death of a first-year cadet who went missing last Friday afternoon while swimming with four classmates at a beach resort in this town.

The school posted on its Facebook page late Monday night that the body of Midshipman Fourth Class Egie C. Pegoro has been recovered. It also requested that a video of the recovery which has been uploaded online be taken down “out of respect for the grieving family and in honor of the deceased.”

The PMMA, however, did not mention where and at what time was the body found.

The school first broke the news of Pegoro’s disappearance on Sunday with another Facebook post, saying that one PMMA cadet “is missing and presumed drowned in a swimming incident at La Paz Beach in San Narciso, Zambales.”

Accordingly, Pegoro went swimming with fellow plebes Jan Kyle Dagoc, Paul Jazpher Cabatin, Bon Lawrence Cabilizatan, and Reginald Rapiñan during their official shore leave from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. last Friday.

PMMA cadets are housed at the school campus in Barangay Natividad, San Narciso town. Crystal Beach Resort, located in Barangay La Paz, is about 15-minutes’ drive away.

The PMMA statement made no mention of how the drowning incident took place, but said that a search and rescue operation was immediately launched “as soon as local authorities were notified of the incident”.

It added that school officials had informed Pegoro’s family of the situation “and is providing them with all necessary support during this difficult time.”

The school reportedly mounted search and rescue operations along with cadet-volunteers, Philippine Coast Guard personnel, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, local lifeguards, and surfers, and put up an emergency command center to discuss the situation, coordinate ongoing efforts, and stand watch of any development.

Meanwhile, barangay leaders, local surfers, and rescuers from Crystal Beach Resort joined the teams supporting the search operations, it said.

The PMMA statement on Sunday, however, added that while search and retrieval operation continued beginning Saturday morning along the whole coast of San Narciso, the cadet remained missing as of Sunday. 