[PRESS RELEASE] The two dead bodies of males found in Flatrocks, Mt. Makiling at 2:45 pm on December 6, 2012 by residents of Los Baños, Laguna had been confirmed by their relatives to be that of UPLB students Mark Lorenz Valdez and Kevin Lagadon. Valdez was a BS Nutrition student, while Lagadon took up BS Computer Science. Autopsy result on the bodies of the two students established the cause of their death to be asphyxiation by drowning.

The two were reported to have logged in at the monitoring station of the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems (MCME) of the UPLB College of Forestry and Natural Resources on December 2, 2012. The MCME monitoring station keeps records of people who go to Flatrocks and two other favorite ecotourism sites, Mudspring and Peak 2. Flatrocks is a 5-minute climb from the monitoring station.

Upon discovery of the two bodies, UPLB, which has jurisdiction over the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve, alerted the Los Baños Police that immediately dispatched a SOCO team. The SOCO team came up with the initial findings that the dead bodies had no external wounds. Subsequent autopsy on their bodies at the Funeraria Regina in Los Baños today established that asphyxiation by drowning caused their death.

The UPLB administration is assuring the public that it is closely monitoring security and undertaking steps to ensure peace and order as well as safety of students in the campus (Office of Public Relations, UPLB).