WT belies claim they didn’t help victims

CEBU, Philippines - The management of WT Construction Inc. has denied the claim of third district Rep. Pablo John Garcia that none of the families of the victims of vehicular accident on the Naga City-Uling Road last Wednesday have yet received assistance from them.

Willy Te issued the statement following the allegation of Garcia that, as of the other day, the families have not received any assistance from Capitol, WTCI or BT Bus Liner.

Te told The FREEMAN that on the night when the accident happened, he shelled out P100,000 when some of the families asked for money to bring the victims immediately to the hospital.

Garcia’s staff immediately attended to the victims at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center on the same evening the incident happened.

Garcia earlier said he will extend P20,000 to the family of each fatality and those injured will also get P10,000 each which will be taken from his Priority Development Assistance Fund deposited to the Capitol as most of the victims are his constituents.

But Te said some of the patients were brought to and are still at the Cebu South General Hospital in Naga City and their expenses are being taken care of by his office.

Government assistance is limited only to public hospitals such as the VSMMC.

“Kung may nataligam-an, open man ang among opisina,” Te said.

Te also accepted the apology of the Land Transportation Office-7 for admitting that they released information of the driver’s license restrictions of Antonieco Omagay Sr., driver of the prime mover that figured in an accident in Naga City last Wednesday.

LTO explained that the information they earlier released to the media was information on Omagay’s son, Antonieco Jr., who also works for a forwarding company.

LTO-7 Regional Director Raul Aguilos also apologized to WTCI, Omagay’s employer, for their lapse.

The clarification came after Tina Roa of WT Construction Inc. denied LTO’s claims that the truck driver was not qualified to drive vehicles that weigh 4,501 kilograms and above because his license’s restrictions are only code 1, 2 and 3 and prime movers require restriction code 8.

Omagay was one of the fatalities after the prime mover he was driving ploughed into a bus of BT Bus Liner killing 10 and injured 53 passengers in Barangay Uling, Naga City.

Garcia further said that 39 of the passengers were also discharged from VSMMC while the 10 are still undergoing treatment.  His medical team also assisted in the expenses.  — (FREEMAN)