‘It was as if the world fell on me’

SAN CARLOS CITY — "Singa ak binagsakan na mundo (It was as if the world fell on me)."

Thus said a teary-eyed Jimmy Prado, whose wife, Nida, 45, four children aged eight to 25 and four relatives were killed in a vehicular accident in Bauang, La Union last Tuesday.

Jimmy, 45, stared blankly as reporters interviewed him yesterday in a funeral parlor in this Pangasinan city where the victims’ bodies were being embalmed.

He recalled that before his wife left at about 3 a.m. last Tuesday, she kidded him, saying, "No ompatey ak, agka la manga asawa lamet a (When I die, don’t get married again)."

Jimmy, who has no permanent job and just took care of their children while his wife sold earthen pots, said he was quite surprised at her statement but nonetheless assured her that he would not.

Nida, her four — sons Alvin, 13; Michael, eight; Wilbert, 23; and Isagani, 25 — nephew Lester, 31, relatives Lito Espiritu, 43, and Dexter Lopez, 19, and their driver Dario Bandong, 21, were killed when the Isuzu Elf truck they were riding in collided with a 22-wheeler truck driven by a certain Roberto Lazo.

Lazo, a resident of Lupao, Nueva Ecija, also suffered injuries. He is confined at the Ilocos Training and Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union.

Isagani’s wife, Jennifer, 24, recounted that before her husband left, he told her to take care of their three children aged two, one and five months.

"Sabi niya sa akin ingatan ko daw ang mga bata kasi aalis na siya (He told me to take care of the children because he was already leaving)," a sobbing Jennifer quoted her husband as saying.

She said Isagani even kissed their children one by one which he was not wont to do.

The STAR learned that Bandong, the driver of the Isuzu Elf truck, was to get married sometime in April.

Three other relatives, Ronnie, 14, and Joey, 16 both surnamed Prado, and Marjoe Lopez, 16, are still confined at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital here.

Although the operator of the 22-wheeler truck based in Malasiqui, Pangasinan has assured the victims’ families of medical and burial assistance, police have nonetheless filed a case against him, according to Jimmy.

Nida left nine other children, the youngest of whom is a four-year-old boy.

"Agko natalusan akin agawa yad sikami (I couldn’t understand why this happened to us)," Jimmy said, adding that he was hoping that Good Samaritans would help him raise his remaining children.

Virgilio Prado, Lester’s father, said his son had been helping his aunt Nida in order to earn money for his baon (school allowance). Lester earned P50 daily and it was only his third time to join his aunt delivering earthen pots.

Manuel Prado, 79, and his wife, Virginia, 74, grandparents of the Prado children, said it was painful to lose four grandchildren at the same time.

The victims will all be buried on Jan. 15 at the Catholic cemetery here.