COTABATO CITY — Four individuals, including a minor, drowned in rampaging floodwaters that swept away the light van-type truck carrying them while its driver was maneuvering through an overflow-type spillway bridge in La Libertad, Zamboanga del Norte on Monday.

Local executives separately told reporters on Tuesday that the cadavers of Nicanor D. Alforo, Jr., barangay chairman of Senote in Dumingag town in Zamboanga del Sur, Michele D. Alforo, sixth grader Nathan S. Alforo and Roxan M. Calibugan were found by rescuers in downstream stretches of the wide river in Barangay El Paraiso in La Libertad.

Officials of the La Libertad Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said the victims and their 12 other companions were on their way home to Dumingag from a Christian religious activity in Calamba, Misamis Occidental.

Witnesses told reporters that forceful floodwaters from upstream of the Dapitan River caused the vehicle to fall, roll over twice and land at a rocky stretch of the waterway.

Rescuers from the La Libertad local government and personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection assigned to the municipality had promptly rescued the 12 companions of the four accident fatalities whom they immediately transported to a mortuary in the municipality. — John Felix M. Unson