Minibus hits, hurts soldier at Minglanilla checkpoint

A commuter mini-bus hit and injured a member of the Philippine Army who was manning a checkpoint along the national highway at barangay Pakigne in Minglanilla yesterday dawn.

Army Private First Class Arnel Quilapio was fixing the checkpoint signboard in the middle of the road at past 4 a.m. yesterday when the bus, with plate number GWX-207, came and hit the soldier, damaging also his M14 service rifle.

The 24-year-old Quilapio, a member of Bravo Company of the 46th Infantry Battalion of the Army's 8th Infantry Division from Samar, is part of the military augmentation forces sent here to secure the 12th ASEAN Summit.

Quilapio was taken to the South General Hospital and is now in stable condition. The minibus driver, Cirilo Llanos, a resident of barangay Candaguit in Sibonga, was caught by a blocking group of Cpl. Mariano Lim and is now detained at the Minglanilla Police.

Minglanilla Police desk officer SPO1 Ricky Larrobis yesterday told The FREEMAN that the bus came from Carcar and was on its way to Cebu City when the accident occurred.

Larrobis said it was raining at the time, and that Llanos claimed to have failed to see the road clearly through the minibus' windshield.

Llanos, who was already charged in court yesterday, said the minibus' wiper system was malfunctioning and that he did not even notice that he hit somebody on the road.

The soldiers of the battalion, of whom Quilapio belongs, have been billeted at the sports complex of the Minglanilla Central School. The checkpoint was part of their routine security work. - Norvie S. Misa/RAE