Army truck rams houses in Maguindanao, kills 3

PARANG, Maguindanao, Philippines – Three villagers were killed while nine others were injured when a wayward Army truck loaded with relief supplies for flood victims rammed more than a dozen roadside houses near an abandoned port here yesterday, police said.

The 10-wheeler fatigue Reyo M-35 truck, owned by the Army’s 65th Infantry Battalion based in Lanao del Sur, was part of a convoy of military and private transport vehicles carrying relief goods intended for villagers affected by recent floods in low-lying areas in Cotabato City and several towns in the first district of Maguindanao.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido La­tag, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, said the driver of the ill-fated truck, who voluntarily turned himself in for investigation, has alleged he lost control of the wheel when the piston of the truck’s vacuum-type brake master cylinder stuck and malfunctioned.

Witnesses said the driver, whose identity is withheld pending the filing of charges against him, first tried to avoid ramming the vehicles ahead and turned left towards a narrow road leading to an old, abandoned port at Barangay Talisay area here.

“It was a downhill road so the truck, with its brakes gone, gained momentum and crashed unto several houses along the road,” Latag said.

Three villagers, siblings Haridja, Fidang and Hamad Itoh, all adolescents, were killed as the truck plowed through the roadside houses.

Latag said responding rescuers from the 511 Emergency Response Group here rushed to a hospital in Cotabato City seven others who were wounded in the accident.

Two other victims, who sustained only bruises, have been allowed to stay in houses of relatives after having received first aid for their superficial wounds.

In another incident, a police patrol car rammed into two motorcycles when it swerved and occupied the opposite lane of the road in Sitio Cawilan, Barangay Antipolo, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur, killing two and seriously hurting two others.

Probers said PO2 Joemar Silvoza, a member of the police Marihatag municipal police force, was trying to roll up and close the left window of the patrol car, when the vehicle swerved and occupied the opposite lane of the road, accidentally hitting the two motorcycles. – With Ben Serrano