By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa
Variety News Staff

THE Department of Public Safety says it did its best in responding to the drowning incidents at the Forbidden Island sanctuary on Friday that claimed the lives of four exchange students.
Department spokeswoman Lei Ogumoro, in an interview yesterday, said DPS personnel promptly responded to the incident contrary to the claims of the brother of one of the victims that the rescuers arrived about two hours after the distress call was made.
Ogumoro said DPS officers responded quickly to the incident and it did not take them two hours to get to Forbidden Island.
She said officers arrived at the scene one hour and eight minutes after receiving the call.
Ogumoro said the incident was reported at the police at 2:39 p.m. on March 23 and patrol officers were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The first responders, patrol officers, arrived at Forbidden Island at 2:49 p.m.
Ogumoro said the Boating Safety Section was also notified. Its officers arrived at Forbidden Island 58 minutes after DPS received the call, she added.
Ogumoro said the officers did the best they could to respond to the incident and save the lives of the students.
“As to decreasing the time of response, we are working on that right now and we are coordinating with other agencies to improve our response time,” Ogumoro said.
Ku Jung Kun, the older brother of Ku Jung Hwan, in an interview with Variety on Wednesday, said the search and rescue team arrived two hours after the distress call was made.
Ku Jung Kun said they are willing to volunteer their time to help the CNMI government train more people to rescue distress victims at sea to avoid similar fatal accidents in the future.
Ogumoro said “that’s a very good suggestion. Anything to improve the department’s service is very much welcome. We’re here to serve the community.”
Ku Jung Hwan, 24, Mi Ra Yang, 20, Sang Won Seo, 19 and Jin Ah Kim, 18, drowned in the waters off Forbidden Island on Friday after they were hit by a big wave and swept out to sea.
The four were hiking along with 13 other students participating in a church-oriented youth fellowship program.