7 aid workers returning from typhoon-ravaged area injured in road accident

MANILA, Philippines–Seven government aid workers who had spent a week on a medical mission in typhoon-ravaged Davao Oriental were severely injured in a vehicular accident Tuesday afternoon, the Philippine Army said Wednesday.

The victims were from the Provincial Health Office of Maguindanao, said Maj. Jacob Obligado, commander of the Army’s 10th Civil Military Operations Battalion.

Obligado said six of them remain in critical condition– Dr. Nic Cantiro; Dr. Almatin Dimaucom; Dr. Nor-ayin Salic; Dr. Junnah Mangacoy; Dr. Grace Espinosa; and Tuy Pangilan, who was the driver of the black Pajero they were riding.

Another doctor, Taher Salaik, is now in stable condition, Obligado said.

The victims are now confined at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City.

According to Obligado, the incident happened at around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday on the national highway in Barangay Saoquigue in Baganga town.

Pangilan had tried to to avoid a motorcycle and the Pajero hit a tree.

The victims were rushed to the Cateel District Hospital for treatment and were later transferred to the SPMC.

Obligado said the victims had just wrapped up a week-long medical mission for the typhoon victims in Baganga, one of the areas in Mindanao hardest hit by Typhoon “Pablo,” which made a landfall on Dec. 4.

More than 19,000 families in Baganga were affected by the typhoon, with hundreds of residents killed and injured. Around 50 residents from the town remain missing, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in its latest report on Wednesday.

The NDRRMC said the overall death toll from Pablo has reached 1,047, with 355 of them still unidentified.

Over 2,600 were injured and 841 are still missing, the NDRRMC said.

The typhoon destroyed an estimated P24.2 billion worth of infrastructure, crops, and private property, it added.