BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO, IME SORNITO and STEPHEN LOUIE CHECA
ILOILO City – A bus plunged into a 30-meter deep ravine in Barangay Igbucagay, Hamtic, Antique. Three passengers died and seven others were injured. Last year, three similar incidents occurred in the same spot, killing around 30 people.
The accident happened around 9:45 p.m. on Friday. The Ceres bus (body number 6228 and plate number FMS 949) of Vallacar Transit was headed to San Jose, Antique from Iloilo City when it fell into the ravine and landed on the remnants of other ill-fated vehicles in the accident-prone area.
“I have been asking for additional signage there to caution drivers but until now there has been none,” said Antique Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Broderick Train.
The bus was totally damaged, according to Police Major Adolfo Pagharion, Hamtic police chief.
The casualties were fresh John B. Lacson Foundation Maritime University graduate Grade 10 student Earl Aron Omanio, 18; Omanio’s mother Vivian, a 58-year-old music teacher at Belison National High School in Belison, Antique; and Evangeline Chicano, 58.
The Omanios were residents of Barangay Baroc-baroc, Belison while Chicano was a resident of Barangay Guinbangga-an, San Jose, Antique. They died of severe body and head injuries.
Driver Ramon Abellar, 33, of Tibiao, Antique, lost control of the bus while negotiating a steep portion of the highway in Barangay Igbucagay, Hamtic, said Pagharion.
Abellar was injured and so were six others: Edwin Omanio, 48; Hans Gabriel Omanio, 16; Lorie Mae Onera (19, student of the University of Antique); Janine Chicano (26, of Barangay Guinbangga-an, San Jose, Antique); bus helper Ervic Nepomuceno, 33, of Barangay Sta. Cruz, Pandan, Antique; and John Lorenz Sanchez (of Barangay La Paz-Tubog, Hamtic, Antique). They were taken to the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital in San Jose.
Pagharion said the incident was the first in the area this year. Counting last year’s similar cases, he estimated that at least 30 lives have already been lost to road mishaps there.
Vallacar Transit would shoulder the burial of the three casualties and the medical expenses of six injured bus passengers.
“We sent our staff to the hospital in San Jose to extend assistance to the victims and their families,” according to Jade Seballos, legal and media relations manager of Vallacar Transit. “We have to make sure nga ara na sila sa maayo nga condition, nga may advice from the doctor nga okay na sila.”
Seballos also said the bus company would conduct an investigation on what really happened.
She stressed that all Vallacar Transit buses undergo regular preventive maintenance.
Bus drivers are constantly reminded, too, to follow traffic safety rules and regulations and made to undergo drug test, said Seballos.
The bus company also uses breath analyzers to check if its drivers are under the influence of liquor, she revealed.
Those who fail the tests are prohibited from driving, stressed Seballos.
Provincial disaster risk reduction officer Train said it took responders almost an hour to retrieve the casualties.
Among those that immediately responded were the local disaster risk reduction and management councils of Belison, Tobias Fornier, San Jose, Sibalom, and Hamtic towns.
Train said the incident happened in an accident-prone area about 16 km away from Hamtic.
He recalled that last December 2018 a truck also fell off the ravine, injuring the driver and killing his assistant. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
