Altar boy who died of leptospirosis laid to rest

The 20-year-old altar boy who reportedly died of leptospirosis after wading through floodwaters to search for his missing father was laid to rest on Sunday.

Peers from the Nuestro Señor de Longos Parish presented Dion Angelo “Gelo” dela Rosa’s family with a Certificate of Recognition for his years of service and devotion to the Catholic Church during the requiem Mass.

Gelo, a third-year human resource services student at Malabon City College, died on 27 July after contracting leptospirosis. He had been searching for his father, who disappeared on 22 July and was later found detained at a Caloocan police station for allegedly violating a decades-old gambling law.

For three days, Gelo waded through flooded streets in Caloocan amid heavy rains. Soon after, he developed a fever and body aches, and informed the parish he could no longer serve at upcoming Masses. Days later, he suffered a heart attack linked to leptospirosis and was found dead by his three-year-old sister.

Doctors said Gelo had a foot wound that became infected after exposure to floodwaters.

“On Sunday night, 27 July, the young man who had been the pillar of hope for his family passed away — the cause: leptospirosis, from the rat urine in the dirty floodwaters he had waded through,” Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said during the Mass, as he decried Gelo’s death.

David noted that Gelo’s father was arrested without a warrant for playing kara y krus, a coin-toss betting game, under Presidential Decree No. 1602.

“This law, passed in 1978 during the time of the late father of the current president, was said to protect the poor from the vice of gambling,” David said. “Yet decades later, not a single major gambling lord has been arrested. The poor remain the only victims, just like during the tokhang days, when quotas on drug suspects became the ticket for promotion.”

Jayson was released on 2 August and denied playing the game. His wife, Jennelyn, said he may have been a victim of pangsakto, a supposed quota-filling tactic by police.

“You were hidden for three days and weren’t even allowed to contact your family,” she said, recalling how they were not informed of his detention.

Caloocan police denied the allegations. Acting investigation chief Romel Caburog said Jayson had told arresting officers to contact his family, and rejected claims that police hid him or targeted him to meet arrest quotas.

In a statement, the Caloocan City Police Station (CCPS) said: “Based on verified reports and timelines, the unfortunate death of the youth due to leptospirosis is not related to the arrest of the father. The health-related incident occurred under different circumstances that have no causal connection to the police operation.”

The CCPS added that bail amounts are determined by the prosecutor’s office and the courts, not the police, and urged the filing of formal complaints if there were lapses in procedure.

“Any allegation of misconduct will be thoroughly investigated, and necessary disciplinary actions will be taken,” the statement said, calling on the public to avoid misinformation.