Sagada tour guide body retrieved

AUTHORITIES on Tuesday confirmed the body of the Sagada tour guide who went missing since Sunday evening was finally retrieved.

Reports from the Mountain Province Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office confirmed the body of Roderick Malecdan was retrieved out of Victoria Cave at 4:20 in Sagada, July 18.

The MPDRRMO also reported a ritual was performed right after he was brought out from the caves before he was carried up to the road.

Malecdan’s body was brought directly to St. Theodore’s Hospital for postmortem and brought home to Demang, Sagada before sunrise of July 19.

According to reports, the body of the 23 – year – old guide was spotted sandwiched among rocks underwater inside the cave at half past 12:00 noon of July 18. Responder-elements from the Philippine Navy sent by OCDCAR made the extrication of the body.

Earlier at least seven tour guides allegedly entered the Victoria cave purposely to explore in preparation for the visit of tourists when a huge volume of water trigged by the early afternoon rains suddenly entered the tunnel and flushed them inside.

Four tourist guides were able to come out

of the cave while two of them were initially rescued by responding rescuers.

Rescuers were able to identify the area where the missing tourist guide and they are expected to scour the area once the water level inside the tunnel will drop to a manageable level. Roderick Osis