After LP event in Tagbilaran councilor dies in accident; vice mayor among 7 injured

UBAY, BOHOL , Philippines  – Liga ng mga Barangay Federation president Ricardo Galo, ex-officio councilor of the island town of President Carlos P. Garcia died on the way to the hospital following a vehicular accident along the national highway in Brgy. Calanggaman of Ubay town last Wednesday.

Mayor Tesalonica Boyboy confirmed this in a text message to The Freeman yesterday, saying that others with Galo on board the van-for-hire are now recuperating in different hospitals in Tagbilaran City.

Vice Mayor Nestor Abad was among the seven who were seriously injured: Galo’s wife Ester, PCG Councilors Boiser, Narciso Baculpo, Renato Zapanta and Cecilio Olvido, and bookkeeper Caridad Legaspi.

The officials rented the van to catch up a boat that would ferry them back to their town following the oathtaking rites in the city of new members of the Liberal Party of Bohol, witnessed by President Noynoy Aquino.

Initial police report stated that the van-for-hire hit a cargo truck parked at one lane of the highway of the barangay in Ubay, about six kilometers before reaching the town proper.

Van driver, identified as Bartolome Mendez, 58, was quoted as saying that it was too late to maneuver his van to veer away from the parked cargo truck. He said failed to see the parked truck because it had no EWD or even a reflector on its rear side.

Police reports bared that the truck, laden with coconut seedlings from a nursery of nearby Philippine Coconut Authority, occupied almost half of the two-lane national highway, because there were also some piles on the road shoulder.

Van driver Mendez and truck driver Ricardo Daboyan of Cebu could be held liable for reckless imprudence resulting to homicide and multiple physical injuries. (FREEMAN)