4 killed as truck crashes into shanties

A couple and their two young daughters were killed yesterday when a garbage truck plowed into their shanty near the sanitary landfill in Rodriguez town (formerly Montalban) in Rizal.

The victims were identified as Nilo Madrid, 32, his wife Elizabeth, 35, and their children, Erica, 6, and Laisa, 4.

The truck driver, Hermogenes Gendevi, 39, surrendered to the police shortly after the incident in Sitio Pintor, Barangay San Isidro.

Police reports said Gendevi was maneuvering uphill when he lost control of the steering wheel, sending the dump truck crashing into the shanties of four families, including the Madrids’.

A witness told investigators that she was awakened by the noise from the skidding truck. When she got up to check it, the roof of her shanty collapsed on her as she was carrying her baby.

Many of the residents in the landfill area, some of whom have been there for 13 years, make ends meet through scavenging.

About 2,500 to 3,000 metric tons of garbage generated by Metro Manila residents are dumped daily in the Rodriguez landfill.

Rodriguez is a first-class Rizal town with a population of 115,167 and 24,524 households.