MONSOON rain has been pouring over farms in Benguet province since July 1, leaving strawberry fields in La Trinidad Valley in disarray. Farmers usually plant strawberries after the monsoon season, in time for harvest in January. EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
MALASIQUI, Pangasinan—Teresita de Guzman, 61, wanted to live longer. She went through a mastectomy procedure in June at Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) after she was diagnosed to be suffering from breast cancer.
But on Monday, on her way to the hospital for her second postsurgery checkup, an uprooted tree rolled down the slope of a mountain along Kennon Road and fell on the van she was riding in, killing her and another passenger.
At least four others were hurt.
Kennon Road still closed
On Tuesday, Kennon Road remained closed as clearing operations continued along a section on the boundary of Baguio City and Tuba, Benguet province. Government workers continued to cut trees in a mountain along that route to prevent further landslides.
“It happened so fast. It was not even raining hard,” said Phing de Guzman, 42, Teresita’s daughter-in-law, who survived the accident. She was accompanying Teresita to her checkup.
“When the tree fell on our van, the van tilted to its left,” said De Guzman, who was seated by the window behind the driver.
“We were shouting for help,” she said.
The passengers of a jeepney following the van came to rescue them, she said.
“Nanay was still alive. I even asked her to give me her hand so that I could pull her up. But she was pinned,” De Guzman said.
She said she would learn later in the hospital that her mother-in-law died. Teresita’s casket arrived in Barangay Asin East here at 3 a.m. on Tuesday.
“It’s sad because when we returned home, she’s already dead,” De Guzman said.
They left their house about 6 a.m. on Monday, riding a tricycle to the national highway in Barangay Tebag in Sta. Barbara town. From there, they took a jeepney to reach Urdaneta City, where they took a Toyota Hi-Ace van that left for Baguio at 7:30 a.m.
Not for-hire vehicle
The van’s plate number, it turned out, did not indicate that it was not a public utility vehicle. “It was parked near a gasoline station and it was where we always took our ride,” De Guzman said.
For-hire vehicles have yellow plates and markings indicating their route and number of passengers, said Glorioso Daniel Martinez, chief of the Land Transportation Office in Urdaneta. The vans normally take just two or three passengers and leave for their destination, picking up passengers along the way.
“Although passengers can sue the driver or operator of the vehicle, they have no passengers’ liability, unlike owners of for-hire vehicles,” Martinez said.
Villamor Fernandez, Teresita’s son, said the van operator, Ernesto Moreno, gave him P1,000 and paid for the casket worth P15,000.
“He did not say anything about our medical expenses. He said he would come here but did not say when,” Fernandez said.
Martinez said private vans illegally operating as for-hire vehicles might be fined P200,000.
In Baguio, the Department of Public Works and Highways sent a team on Monday night to cut 12 trees in a mountain along the accident site that may collapse and bring down rocks and mud, said Edilberto Carabbacan, the agency’s Cordillera director.
“The workers had to stop the operation at 8:30 p.m. after cutting eight trees when heavy fog set in and rocks started falling again. A boulder hit a payloader so we decided to bring out the workers,” he said.
On Tuesday morning, the workers resumed cutting the remaining four trees, but work was slow due to the rain.
4 hurt in bus fall
In Benguet, four people were hurt on Tuesday when a bus fell into a 25-meter deep ravine in Kapangan town, police said. The bus was negotiating a section of the Kapangan Road in Barangay Cayapes when its brakes malfunctioned.
The victims were taken to Kapangan Medicare and Community Hospital and Benguet General Hospital in La Trinidad town.
On Sunday, a small-scale miner died while four others were hurt when a landslide buried their mine camp in Barangay Ampucao in Itogon, Benguet.
Joben Bao-anan, 30, was buried by mud and rocks while he was in the camp’s kitchen. His companions—Amos, 21, and Barton, 17, both surnamed Bao-nan; Manuel Diano, 30, and Glen Balao, 18—were taken to BGHMC. Reports from Gabriel Cardinoza, Kimberlie Quitasol and Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon