Posted on November 24, 2025
An amphibious excavator dredger clearing Typhoon “Tino” debris at a river in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental, capsized Friday morning, Nov. 21, causing the death of its driver.
Harvey Nepomuceno, 49, was trapped inside the excavator dredger that fell upside down at 8 a.m. and it took rescuers close to three hours to extract him, the police reported.
Nepomuceno, a Hinigaran municipal government job order worker, was extracted at 10:44 a.m. and was brought to the Hinigaran Medical Clinic where he was declared dead.
The amphibious excavator dredger, owned by the Hinigaran municipal government, was dredging the river of debris and silt at the Reclamation Area in Barangay 1, Hinigaran.
The dredging of the river to prevent flooding had been ongoing for several days, Liezl Namo, Hinigaran Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) head, said.
A video posted on social media showed the amphibious excavator dredger going into the river where it got stuck in a muddy section and capsized.
Residents were also heard shouting for help but because the dredger was very heavy it took close to three hours for a multi-agency group to extract the driver, Namo said.
She said personnel from the Municipal DRRMO, Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Fire Protection and fishermen were among those who participated in the rescue operation.*
