Rescue made by local folk

THEY could hear the cries of passengers underneath the fallen six-wheeler dump truck.

Local villagers used rope and cut down trees for leverage to lift the “Clean and Green” government truck that had fallen on its right side on the mountain road.

Balao barangay captain Hilario Inego told Cebu Daily News they couldn’t wait for paramedics or emergency workers to arrive, so 20 residents went about lifting the vehicle.

He said they could hear the victims calling for help and striking the metal with hard objects.

At least five passengers were killed on the spot, he said.

Trisikad driver Aristio Villasan, 23, was lucky he fell on the ground. He was the last to be saved as rescuers used manual labor to bring the truck back to an upright position. The young man got up, cleaned himself up, and ran to the nearest house to ask for hot water, said Inego.

When Villasan returned at 5 :30 p.m. to look for his relatives, he was still in a state of shock. Paramedics persuaded him to go with them to the hospital because of wounds on his shoulders and other parts of the body

Villasin said the accident happened very quickly. He recalled the truck wobbling, causing passengers to fall down.

Kenneth Daguman, 26, was the first to notice the accident after he heard loud crash and people crying for help. He was staying about 100 meters away in his aunt’s house. Daguman said he immediately went out find the origin of the noise.

Daguman drove his motorcycle to a hilly pat of the barangay road. The sight of children with head wounds and other people crying for help shook him.

“It looked horrible. They kept shouting for help. Others had head wounds. The skin on their foreheads were scraped off, even the children,” he told CDN in Cebuano.

Daguman then drove to the barangay hall to get their multicab for a rescue job and to alert the barangay captain. He brought the first nine victims to the Barili District Hospital.

The impact of the crash destroyed the coffin carried on the truck. The female corpse was thrown outside. But the barangay captain of Cangdampas, Leonaldo Inego, took care of the burial yesterday.

Using the Barili municipal dump truck as a hearse is a long-standing practice because no funeral parlor limousine would go to the remote village.

“No one would drive up here because it’s uphill and steep,” said the barangay captain.

Residents who request for the garbage truck just pay for the gasoline.

“This has been a long-standing practice because this is the province and it’s so far away,” said Public Information Officer of Barili Felomino Leyson..

List of dead

1. Angana, Epifanio Nerosa – 60 years old

2. Agidor, Napoleon O.

3. Escarpi, Cirilo Roque – 40 years old

4. Grepo, Jerry Jagbil

5. Paragosa, Herbacia Pasomaya

6. Repunte, Bonifacio

7. Ricaplaza, Jamie – 27 years old

(Died at VSMMC)

8. Ricaplaza, Rosendo

Interview with Sacred Heart Funeral homes in Ronda by dySS AM as of 10:30 p.m.

Truck accident victims

(Partial list as of 9 p.m.)

Patients treated at the trauma center of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City

1. Alicaya, Manuel

2. Alicaya, Rene – 22 years old

3. Alicaya, Ryan – 30 years old

4. Angana, Norberto – 16 years old

5. Angana, Bebtana – 17 years old

6. Angana, Juana – 41 years old

7. Angana, Marino – 46 years old

8. Bequilla, Myrna – 32 years old

9. Bequilla, Feliciano – 53 years old

10. Berame, Marilyn – 25 years old

11. Cabasilan, Leonida – 28 years old

12. Cabillo, Miguel – 60 years old

13. Calago, Dominador – 37 years old

14. Calago, Teresita – 36 years old

15. Casipong, Richard 18 years old

16. Castares, Esmeralda – 56 years old

17. Cereño, Ashley – 3 years old

18. Cereño, Cecilia – 29 years old

19. Dealagdon, Eliades – 38 years old

20. Dealagdon, Elvira – 34 years old

21. Dionisio, Vic – 61 years old

22. Emit, Cirilo – 21 years old

23. Emit, Timotea – 38 years old

24. Empis, Anatolia – 44 years old

25. Empis, Rose Marie – 31 years old

26. Jagbel, Pedro

27. Juanillo, Martin, Jr. – 33 years old

28. Lacostales, Gregoria – 57 years old

29. Lacostales, Juana – 47 years old

30. Lumbra, Merlita – 37 years old

31. Lumbra, Paning

32. Manacio, Domingo – 33 years old

33. Manacio, Rafael – 52 years old

34. Manacio, Romulo – 53 years old

35. Manacio, Leon

36. Rebuyas, Jerimar – 12 years old

37. Ricaplaza, Christian – 13 years old

38. Roque, Berto – 15 years old

39. Roque, Nilo – 54 years old

40. Roque, Samuel – 39 years old

41. Tumulak, Michael – 30 years old

42. Veramil, Mylene – 25 years old

43. Villacan, Anestio – 21 years old

44. Villacan, Felix – 50 years old

45. Yek, Andres – 55 years old

46. Yek, Aquilles – 25 years old

47. Yek, Perfecto

48. Yek, Roberto – 31 years old

49. Yek, Sacarias – 24 years old

Source: Barili Police and VSMMC