Driver hits fast-food restaurant in QC
A 14-wheel truck crashed into a pizza fast-food restaurant on E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue in Libis, Quezon City, at 2:40 a.m. Tuesday, destroying part of the establishment’s glass facade and causing P700,000 worth of damage. The driver, Dante Escarda, 32, a resident of San Ildefonso, Bulacan, said he fell asleep as he was driving the delivery truck to Antipolo, Rizal. No one was hurt since the restaurant was already closed although its supervisor, Mitzi Santos, said that they would file charges of reckless imprudence resulting in property damage against Escarda. The driver, meanwhile, asked Santos not to file charges against him as the truck insurance would be enough to cover the damage sustained by the restaurant. “I tried to avoid hitting a taxi in front of me and swerved to the right. I then hit the wall and luckily did not hit other cars or people,” the driver said in Filipino. He told Quezon City Police District traffic investigator PO3 Renato Sunga that he has been a truck driver for 11 years and that yesterday’s crash was his first major accident. The case has been forwarded to the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for action. Penelope P. Endozo
2 men linked to robberies nabbed
Two suspects in a string of multiple robbery-homicide cases were arrested Tuesday near a gasoline station in Commonwealth, Quezon City. Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Chief Supt. George Regis identified the two as Ramil Abenir, 35, of West Fairview, Quezon City, and Jefferson dela Cruz, 32, of Old Balara, Quezon City. “These two are known to shoot their victims first before they steal from them,” said Regis. Abenir and Dela Cruz were arrested at 6 p.m. on Monday shortly after QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit head Chief Insp. Rodel Marcelo received information that a group of armed men were planning to rob a Petron gas station on Commonwealth Avenue. The two men who were caught with a cal. .45 pistol and a cal. .38 revolver admitted that they were behind several robberies which left a couple and tricycle driver dead. Penelope P. Endozo