2 policemen die in mishap; hit-and-run driver hunted

SILANG, Cavite — Police are hunting down the driver of a locally assembled van who killed two police officers in an accident along the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road here Monday night.

"We are hunting him to give justice to our fellow policemen," said Chief Inspector Conrado Gongon, this town’s police chief.

The two policemen — Inspector Arthur Tanauan, 27, and PO1 Ervin Rita, 29, both assigned to the Special Action Force Training Camp at Fort San Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna — did not reach the Adventist University of the Philippines Hospital alive.

Investigation showed that Tanauan and Rita were riding tandem on a motorcycle on their way back to their camp when the van suddenly appeared from the opposite direction.

This forced Tanauan, who was driving the motorcycle, to swerve to the right, smashing into a Nissan Pathfinder which the van earlier had tried to overtake.

Police said the van ran over the policemen as they lay on the ground. The van fled toward Tagaytay City. — Rene Alviar