2 dead, 17 hurt as jeep, truck collide in NCotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines --- Two passengers were killed while 17 others were badly injured on Tuesday morning when a jeepney collided head on with a dump truck at a stretch of a highway connecting North Cotabato’s adjoining Mlang and Matalam towns.

Investigators identified the fatalities as Hadja Zenaida Abdulwahab, and Kongan Talutawan, both residents of Buluan, Maguindanao.  

Talutawan and Abdulwahab were both declared dead on arrival by doctors at the Babol General Hospital in the town proper of Matalam.

The 17 injured Jeepney passengers were rushed by responding local officials and policemen to different hospitals.

The victims, all related to each other by blood, were on their way to Midsayap town, also in North Cotabato, to attend the wedding of a relative, when the brakes of their chartered Jeepney malfunctioned.

The driver of the ill-fated Jeepney lost control of the vehicle and hit a dump truck approaching from the opposite end of the highway.

Truck driver Salahudin Baliwan, of Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat, said he tried his best to avoid the wayward jeepney, but failed due to its velocity.

“I was driving in slow speed because there is a roadside school ahead,” Baliwan said in Filipino.