Teacher, pastor dead in highway mishap in Cotabato province

HIGHWAY MISHAP. A rescue worker speaks to the driver of a Toyota Hi-Lux that hit a motorbike on Monday, killing a Christian pastor and a public school teacher in Aleosan, Cotabato. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY PATRICK SAPAL

COTABATO CITY—A teacher heading home with her husband after an exhausting day of the first face-to-face classes since the COVID-19 pandemic died in a highway mishap on Monday, August 22, in Cotabato province.

Remedios Gornez, 58, was aboard a motorcycle driven by her husband George, 59, when a white Toyota Hi-Lux pick-up plowed into the roadside, hitting them and a house nearby in Barangay Pagangan, Aleosan town, said Major Jennefer Amotan, acting Aleosan police chief.

Gornez’s husband, a Christian pastor, fetched her from the Nalapaan Elementary School in Pikit town before they headed for Midsayap, where they lived.

“The couple on their motorbike was pulling over because of the heavy downpour when the accident happened,” said Pat Sapal of Pikit, who responded to the incident.

As the motorcycle driver, referring to George Gornez, was about to park, a wayward pick-up vehicle came out of nowhere and bulldozed its way through them and the roadside house, Sapal said.

A woman, who drove the pick-up truck, was stunned at what happened, a witness said in a radio interview.

Amotan said the couple died on the spot due to injuries. The police took the pick-up driver into custody.

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