On their way to sister’s wake, 2 meet death

Half-siblings Betty Columna and Leuterio Quillopas were en route to their Masbate hometown of Lagundi to attend the wake of an elder sister. Sadly, they failed to reach their destination, and worse, they ended up dead.

The two were among the passengers of the Falcon bus that plunged into a ravine in Tagkawayan, Quezon early morning last Sunday, killing 33 people, including Betty and Leuterio.

"Their mother Aurita called us up and told them that they must visit their dead sister Dolores in Masbate at once. Now they all ended up dead in a span of four days," recalled Betty’s husband Carmelito.

Carmelito even sent the two off at the Falcon terminal in Cubao, Quezon City at about 4 p.m. Saturday. "Both were very happy before leaving the terminal," he said.

The Columnas live in a government housing site in Vergonville, Las Piñas City for 10 years now. Betty had two children, Vicky, 14, and Albert, 12, from her first marriage, and three others, Teresa, 11; Calvin, 8; and Sharmaine, 6, with Carmelito.

"All she wished was for our children to finish school and have a good future," Carmelito said. "She was so hardworking; she could do many things, from being an insurance and education plan agent to a seller of beauty products, anything just to send our children to school."

Carmelito does all sort of things to earn money, but cannot do heavy work due to his heart ailment. "Now that Betty is gone, I told my children to be tough. We’ll just help each other to survive," he said, his voice cracking at times.

Tragic news

Though confident that Betty and Leuterio would arrive in Masbate safely, Carmelito thought of calling her through her cellphone at about 4 a.m. Sunday.

But instead of Betty’s, a man’s voice was on the other end of the line. Carmelito asked who he was, and the man replied: "Brod, yung may-ari ng cellphone na ito nadisgrasya. Nahulog sa bangin yung bus na sinasakyan nila (Brod, this cellphone’s owner met an accident. Their bus fell into a ravine.)"

He asked the man if Betty was alive, but got no direct answer. The man merely told him to go to Tagkawayan to see for himself. What distraught him was a voice in the background, saying, "Pare, ang daming patay. Dalawa lang yata ang nakaligtas (There are so many people dead. It seems only two survived)."

Carmelito did as he was told, leaving Manila at 8 a.m. and arriving in Tagkawayan at 4 p.m. There, he searched for Betty in a pile of remains at the morgue. He finally found her after viewing the third batch of bodies.

Premonitions

Betty, according to Carmelito, decided not to bring Sharmaine, their youngest daughter, with her to Masbate, as she normally did in the past.

"Maybe, she felt that something bad would happen," he said, recounting that she stood pat even when he pressed her to bring Sharmaine along.

Lolita Ubaldo, a neighbor of the Columnas, recalled overhearing Betty telling two female friends at least thrice to take care of her children in her absence. "Kayo na ang bahala sa mga anak ko," she quoted her as saying.

The remains of Betty and Leuterio, who worked as part-time driver for a lawyer in Manila, lie in state at the Columnas’ residence. Leuterio’s family took a vacation in Samar and could not immediately return to Manila.

Carmelito was profuse with thanks for Tagkawayan Mayor Eleazar Salumbides who, he said, assisted him and the relatives of the other victims.

Carmelito, however, complained about the treatment they got from the management of Falcon Bus Lines. He said they were given a post-dated check for P4,000 for deposit in a bank in Daet, Camarines Sur. "How can we use that check for our immediate expenses?" he asked.

President Arroyo has ordered the Department of Transportation and Communications to investigate the accident, the first of two tragedies involving provincial buses in a span of three days. Last Tuesday, a Victory Liner bus bound for Dagupan City from Baguio City, also plunged into a ravine in Benguet, killing two persons.