Rescuers have recovered the body of a 23-year-old male believed to have drowned in a river at Barangay Mabato in Negros Oriental’s Ayungon town while his companion remains missing, the police reported yesterday.

The Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office identified the body as that of Velmark Caliguid Mojares, single, of Barangay Nalundan in the province’s Bindoy town.

Responders from the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and other volunteer rescuers are still searching for his companion, John Mark Amarante Aneñabo, 20 years old, single, also of Barangay Nalundan’s Sitio Abaca.

An initial investigation disclosed that the two were on board a motorcycle on Tuesday evening, July 25, en route to Mabato to attend the birthday celebration of a relative.

The motorcycle they were riding was found near the spillway in Mabato’s Sitio Manlawaan.

They are the first casualties reported in the province in the midst of stormy weather in the past few days due to the southwest monsoon enhanced by Typhoon “Egay.”

In Bais City, at least 18 families, comprising 65 individuals, evacuated from Sitio San Jose Tavera and Tambacan on Tuesday evening, a social media post of the local government unit said. The local police said they returned home the following day.

In Canlaon City, more families have also evacuated following heavy rains although Engineer Judith Artigas, the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer chief, declined an interview as she was still busy attending to the evacuees at press time.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), in its first situation report, said there was minimal damage in Negros Oriental despite the bad weather.

Fallen trees were reported in Tanjay City, Dumaguete City, Guihulngan City and Zamboanguita town.

PDRRMO executive director Adrian Sedillo said the continuous rains and strong winds in the past days, as projected by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, continue to pose a threat in the province.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) also suspended more trips out of the nearby island-province of Siquijor, bound for Dumaguete and Tagbilaran ports, due to bad weather.

This is the third day that the PCG had suspended trips to nearby islands, as well as issuing an order banning sea vessels with a gross tonnage of 250 or less from venturing out to sea. (PNA)