2 dead, truck driver hurt in Cotabato road crash

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two truckmen died while a driver was injured when their truck, due to sudden mechanical trouble, hit a roadside powerline post, rolled over and landed on its side along the highway in Barangay Malasila in Makilala, Cotabato on Friday, August 28.

Officials of the Makilala Municipal Police Station and local executives who responded to the incident told reporters on Saturday that the accident left two helpers of truck driver Mark Obatay, Edwin Quiretan and Felipe Datulayta, both dead.

Lt. Col. Tristan Vergel Sablada, municipal police chief of Makilala, said Obatay lost control of the large truck he was driving when its brake system malfunctioned while he was maneuvering through an uphill stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Purok Centro in Barangay Malasila.

Quiretan and Datulayta succumbed to injuries at the hospital, where policemen and soldiers brought them for treatment.

Obatay, who sustained wounds and contusions in different parts of his body, is now confined to a hospital.

Their truck, loaded with bags of cement from Davao City, was enroute to towns in the first district of Cotabato province then.

Local executives in Makilala and the office of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza are to help facilitate the turnover of the cadavers of Quiretan and Datulayta to their families to Banisilan and Midsayap towns in the province, respectively.