By Ronron
August 29, 2007
Several tourists, including Japanese nationals, and local boatmen were trapped at the foot of the famous tourist spot Pagsanjan Falls in Laguna province late Tuesday due to rising water level, police and military said yesterday.
Those in distress include two Japanese nationals, 13 Korean nationals, five Filipino tourists, and 19 local boatmen, a police report from the Pagsanjan Municipal Police Station showed.
They were all supposed to have left already the Pagsanjan Falls after about an hour of exploring the place when at 5 pm, the boatmen said it would be too dangerous to get off due to the high water level and strong current caused by the rain.
It was one boatman who reported the fate of the 39 people to the Pagsanjan Police Station, prompting the launch of a rescue operation.
PO2 Emil Medina of said police station said elements of the Pagsanjan and Cavinti Municipal Police Stations, the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, the Philippine National Red Cross, and the local tourism office of Pagsanjan took part in the rescue operation that began at 7:15 pm.
Due to poor visibility and the continuing rain, the rescue, particularly of the tourists, only ended at around 1:30 am yesterday (Wednesday).
Medina said each of the tourists had to be pulled off with a rope and harness from the foot of the falls to the upper ground, some 300 feet above. All of them were then brought to the nearby El Pueblo Salvador Resort in Barangay Tibatig in Cavinti.
Medina said none of the tourists was hurt, except that they were chilling due to being soaked for quite a long time.
The waiting service of the tourists took them then to Manila.
Medina identified the two Japanese male tourists as Satoshi Ono and Atsushi Caco. The police officer is not sure if both belong to the same tour group with that of the Koreans, and where they are billeted at./DMS
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