1 dead, 15 hurt as truck plunges into Zamboanga river

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - A cargo truck, carrying more than two tons of rubber latex, plunged into a river in Naga town in Zamboanga Sibugay province, leaving one person dead and 15 others injured, police said Tuesday.

Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, spokesman of Zamboanga Peninsula regional police office, identified the lone fatality as Virgilio Montillano, 24, a rubber latex collector.

The injured victims have been brought to a hospital in Naga town for treatment of various injuries, Huesca said.

He said that according to initial investigations, the truck -- an Isuzu forwarder truck -- bearing plate number GDP 600 driven by Jifty Adalla, 34, picked up 2,500 kilos of rubber latex and 15 rubber latex collectors in Barangay Sulo from Sarbemco plantation.

The police said that when the truck was on its way back to Block 32, in the same village, it experienced mechanical malfunction and lost its breaks.

“The truck sped wayward into the spillway and turned turtke and plunged into the river bank,” Huesca said citing a police report from Naga town.

The passengers were thrown out from the ill-fated truck except for Montillano, who was pinned down before he was rescued by his injured companions.

The driver of the ill-fated truck surrendered to the police for questioning.