Benguet bus mishap claims second fatality

TUBA, Benguet — "It happened so fast."

Thus recalled Pablo Bagano, one of the 52 passengers of Victory Liner bus 120 that plunged into a ravine in Sitio Saltang, Barangay Taloy Sur here Tuesday afternoon.

Seventy-three-year-old Margarita Beltran, of Binmaley, Pangasinan, was instantly killed in the mishap. Another passenger, Jericho Obra, 24, of Damortis, La Union, died at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center a few hours after the incident.

The rest of the passengers sustained bone fractures and other injuries.

Bagano, 43, of La Trinidad, Benguet, stammered as he recounted that the bus, driven by Danilo Mendoza, was negotiating a downward bend when it fell into the 109 feet deep ravine along the Marcos Highway at about 4:20 p.m. The bus was en route to Dagupan City from Baguio.

Tuba probers said the bus suffered trouble in its steering wheel. The bus was lifted from the accident site, 55 kilometers from Baguio City, yesterday morning.

Relatives of Beltran, a widow, said she regularly commuted to Baguio whenever she longed for her children who, except for one, are all based in the United States.

She left home early Tuesday morning to go to Baguio. Her son Jerry waited for her in vain later that day only to learn from relatives that she was killed in the tragedy.

"I often warned her not to travel frequently because of her age but she would always insist on what she wanted to do," said Josefina Beltran Zulueta, a relative of the septuagenarian, who was fondly called "Bai Kikay."

Two weeks ago, Zulueta quoted the old woman as saying: "Onalis ak la ta dakel so toon naynay. Diya kila (I will now leave you because there are always many people here. You stay here)."

The management of Victory Liner promised to shoulder the burial fees of the two fatalities and the medical bills of the injured passengers.

Rogelio Ortega, the bus firm’s Baguio City manager, made the rounds of the hospitals where the injured are confined yesterday morning.

The tragic bus mishap was the second in three days. Last Sunday, at least 33 people were killed when a Falcon bus also plunged into a ravine in Tagkawayan, Quezon.