8 dead in Zambo del Norte Highway mishap

COTABATO CITY – Eight hitchhikers died in a vehicular accident Wednesday in Barangay Dicolom in Baliguian town in Zamboanga del Norte.

The incident was preceded, three days before, in a road mishap in Butuan City that left three van passengers dead and hurt eight others.

The Baliguian municipal police confirmed late Wednesday the death of eight people riding a Bonggo light truck that plunged into a deep side of the highway while on its way to Labason town in the same province to deliver its copra cargo.

The local police, in a report to the Police Regional Office-9 in Zamboanga City, said the eight fatalities were all residents of Labason, an interior town in Zamboanga del Norte.

The driver of the ill-fated truck lost control of the vehicle when its brake malfunctioned, causing the accident.

Three passengers of a van owned by the local government unit of Cagwait municipality in Surigao del Sur died in an accident in Barangay De Oro in Butuan City three days before.

The fatalities, Roderick Lamigo, 49, Michael Apaap, 44, and Luther Dequito, succumbed to injuries sustained in the accident.

The Butuan City Police Office said eight other injured passengers of the van were rushed to hospitals for treatment.

Van driver Ernie Lozada, 55, had told police investigators that their vehicle first wiggled uncontrollably on the pavement made so slippery by heavy downpours until it swerved to one side of the highway and fell on a river.

Lozada’s three passengers who died in the accident and their injured companions were en route to Butuan City to secure documents from the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Statistics Authority that they need for their work.