2 soldiers killed, 3 others hurt in Cotabato road crash

KIDAPAWAN CITY —Two elements of the Army’s 19th Infantry Battalion were killed, and three others were injured, including the driver, when the dump truck they were riding plunged into a 20-foot-deep ravine in North Cotabato last Thursday, a military official said Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Ehrlich Noel Paraso, commander of the 19th IB,  identified the fatalities as Private First Class Joemar Tan and Corporal Vincent Sarona, both members of the Scout Rangers Company and deployed at the 19th IB.

An initial investigation showed that the dump truck was on a narrow dirt road in Barangay Meocan in Arakan town when it fell into the ravine.

Senior Inspector Jun Napat, chief of the Arakan PNP, said that the driver of the government-owned truck stopped by the roadside to give way to a motorcycle on the narrow dirt road. 

But the part of the roadside on which the driver pulled over was too soft, collapsing under the weight of the truck, bringing the truck into the cliff, Napat said.  

Officials from the municipal government has long identified the area as landslide-prone.

Napat added that Tan and Sarona, who were both seated in the dump box, were thrown off into the ravine.  

Tan died while being treated at the Municipal Health Services Center in Arakan, while Sarona expired at the Madonna General Hospital in Kidapawan City.  

The other three soldiers who survived the accident but sustained several injuries were also rushed to the Madonna Genera Hospital, reports said. —LBG, GMA News