By Henry Empeño | September 4, 2026

BOTOLAN, Zambales — Storm-related deaths in the province of Zambales now reached a total of 14, following the recovery on Thursday, September 3, of the body of a drowning victim in this town, an Aeta minor whose father also died in the same accident.

Authorities said Simeon Candule, 35, and his seven-year-old son were going home to Barangay Palis on Tuesday afternoon, September 1, when their carabao-drawn cart overturned due to strong river current at Barangay Malomboy east of Palis.

The body of Candule was recovered the following day near the accident site by a team from the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO). That of his son was retrieved two days later by Philippine Coast Guard searchers near the Bucao River delta, some 15 kilometers away from the site of accident.

The 12 other deaths recorded since August also resulted from drowning.

On August 13, the body of Eddie Bonus Garcia, 20, was spotted at the Burgos River in San Antonio, Zambales. He was first reported missing days before from his residence at Barangay Balaybay in the neighboring town of Castillejos.

On August 25, Jasper Rosales, 20, of Barangay Burgos in San Antonio, reportedly crossed the Pamatawan River with cousin Darwin Milo to gather vegetables but were overwhelmed by strong current. Milo survived. Rosales’s body was found the following day along the shoreline of the beach community of San Miguel.

The biggest tragedy happened on August 27 when a group of Aeta residents of Barangay Buhawen was crossing the Mapanuepe Lake in San Marcelino town on a motorboat and vessel capsized.

The bodies of six drowning victims—three adults and three children—were immediately retrieved right after the accident, but three others went missing. Two more victims, both minor, were fished out of the lake two days later.

The ninth victim, identified as 26-year-old Arlene Liwanag, who was pregnant, was also found in the lake on August 30, three days after the accident.

Meanwhile, a three-year-old boy was swept away into river at Barangay Old Cabalan in Olongapo City on August 29, when raging floodwaters from a collapsed wall entered their house and broke his parents’ grip on him. The boy’s body was the following day along the shore in the Subic Bay Freeport, about 12 kilometers from his home.

Zambales is among the provinces Luzon that bore the brunt of monsoon rains since August, with the 24-hour accumulated rainfall over the Zambales region reaching up 200 millimeters, said Dr. Mahar Lagmay, executive director of Project NOAH, or the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards.

Lagmay said in a September 4 post that the record accumulated rainfall, which originates in the area around Mount Pinatubo, “represents roughly 276 million cubic meters of rainwater, equivalent to about 112,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools falling over the mountainous region.”

That record volume of rainwater “was subsequently conveyed downslope and into low-lying communities across Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, and Tarlac,” Lagmay said. ▲

COVER PHOTO: Botolan MDRRMO personnel scour the lahar field along the Bucao River in Botolan, Zambales on Sept. 3 in search of a missing Aeta believed to have drowned two days before. (Botolan LGU)