2 dead, 17 hurt in Misamis Oriental road mishap

COTABATO CITY —Two people were killed and 17 others seriously injured in a road accident in Barangay Buko, Kinoguitan, Misamis Oriental, on Thursday, June 12.

Capt. Eugene Zambrano, Kinoguitan municipal police chief, told reporters on Friday, June 13, that the fatalities, Joselito Baclayon and Joni Tedlos, were in a multicab that collided head-on with a passenger van along a highway in Barangay Buko.

The van involved in the accident was carrying adolescent athletes who were en route to Balingoan, Misamis Oriental, to participate in a youth basketball game.

According to witnesses, the impact of the collision was so strong that the van rolled over twice before landing on its side along the highway.

Five other passengers riding in the rear cargo deck of the multicab were thrown off upon impact. They fell into a deep roadside area where a concrete building is under construction.

Baclayon and Tedlos, residents of Alubijid, Misamis Oriental and Laguindingan in the same province, respectively, were declared dead on arrival by doctors in a hospital where barangay emergency responders and policemen brought them for treatment. 

Their five companions and the 12 passengers of the van, then supposedly en route to the town proper of Balingoan, were also transported to the hospital by barangay officials and policemen, according to Zambrano.