Sad Christmas for moms of ‘killer truck’ victims

Christmas Day would be hardly felt in a neighborhood in Antipolo, especially at the household of Maribel Baccay, a mother who lost two sons in a freak accident on Thursday.

Holding the pictures of her two sons John Nomer, 10; and John Mervin, 15, Baccay could not be consoled as she wailed in grief a day after the roadside accident in Antipolo City that killed eight people, most of them teenagers.

“Dapat ako na lang. Bakit kailangan mamatay ang mga anak ko? Hindi naman ako pabayang ina (It should have been me. Why should my children die? I was never a neglectful mother)” Baccay, 36, a manicurist, said as she cried.

Baccay was working at a hair salon when she got a text message that two of her children were killed in the accident.

She rushed to the scene and found the bodies of John Nomer and John Mervin, whom she had just seen playing billiards near their home, prior to the accident.

The driver of the wayward truck, Philip Adriano, said the brakes of the 18-wheeler cargo truck (RFD 594) he was driving failed while he and his assistant were traveling along the Sumulong Highway.

The truck rammed into an owner-type jeepney and a passenger before plowing into at least five houses and an eatery.

Chief Inspector Christopher de la Peña, precinct commander in Barangay (village) Mambugan, said Adriano will undergo drug test after his discharge from the hospital.

“This is to know if he was under the influence of illegal drugs when the accident occurred,” he said, adding a sachet of suspected shabu (metamphetamine hydrochloride) and drug paraphernalia were found inside the truck.

“Napakasakit po, ang hirap tanggapin (It’s so painful and hard to accept),” Baccay said in an interview.

She wanted the driver and even the owner of the truck Rodelros Enterprises to answer for the tragedy.

Another mother

Baccay was not the only mother who lost two children in the incident. Josephine Sarol, 50, was fuming at the driver of the 10-wheeler truck saying she wanted him dead.

“I’ll kill him and then I’ll apologize,” she said when asked to comment about the news that the driver was seeking forgiveness from the victims.

The driver will be charged with reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide at the City Prosecutor’s Office within the day, De la Peña said.