Coast Guard personnel dead, 5 hurt in Palawan vehicular accident

INQUIRER FILES

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — A personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) died in a vehicular accident which also left three more officers, one seaman and a civilian injured in Taytay town in Palawan province on Sunday, June 2.

Coast Guard District Palawan (CGD-Pal) spokesperson Ens. Chrieson Dave Gabayan said in a report that the PCG personnel were travelling in a Toyota Hilux service vehicle going to El Nido when the accident happened along the national highway in Barangay (village) Cataban at around 10 a.m.

The CGD-Pal report said the pickup truck tried to avoid a motorcycle topdown that overtook them because of another incoming vehicle, causing the Hilux to overshoot and fall into a ravine beside the road.

READ: 3 van passengers dead, 8 hurt in Quezon road mishap

Seaman 2nd Class Lyric Orbon, resident of Narra town, also in Palawan, was allegedly thrown off the vehicle and died on the spot.

The other passengers Ensign Jhairene Lim, Ens. Jerevy Miag-ao, and Ens. Friendly Mercado, assigned at the Coast Guard Station El Nido and Coast Guard Station Coron, were wounded, the CGD-Pal said.

The name of the injured civilian passenger was withheld by CGD-Pal.

Reports from Palawan police, however, stated that it was the pickup truck driven by Apprentice Seaman Alfederic Decon, 29, that overtook a motorcycle. When one of the truck’s front tires suddenly burst, the driver lost control which caused it to roll several times before plunging into the ravine.

The police report also said the fatality was thrown off from the vehicle and got stuck in a tree due to the impact.

Responding rescue personnel from Taytay Municipal Disaser Risk Reduction and Management Office brought the other victims, who suffered multiple injuries, to the Northern Palawan Provincial Hospital for immediate medical attention.