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