2 dead, 3 badly injured in Cotabato road mishap

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two individuals died while three others were badly hurt in an accident involving a large fuel tanker and a bantam multicab at a stretch of a highway in Barangay San Mateo in Aleosan, Cotabato on Friday afternoon, June 13.

Investigators from the Aleosan Municipal Police Station and local executives said on Saturday, June 14, that two in the multicab, its ethnic Moro driver, Bebot Ulangkaya, and Jahara Musa, both from a Maguindanaon community in nearby Pikit town in Cotabato, died instantly from injuries caused by the accident.

Barangay officials and ranking personnel of the Aleosan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said the multicab first overtook a vehicle it was trailing behind and hit head-on the fuel tanker approaching from the opposite direction of the highway.

The accident left three others, Gino Ulangkaya and Juharto Alimanan, who were seated at the rear deck of the pick-up type multicab, injured. They were immediately transported to a hospital by policemen and barangay officials who responded to the incident.

Officials of the Aleosan municipal police force stated in a report to Cotabato’s provincial police director, Col. Gilberto Tuzon, that the tanker truck is registered in the name of a businessman in Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur.