Village execs, residents survive vehicle mishap

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Officials and residents of Barangay Motong, this city, cheated death Saturday when they met a vehicular accident on their way home from a Lakbay Aral event at Barangay Banban in Ayungon town.

The accident took place at Tambo road, near the town proper of Ayungon, when the brakes of the Task Force Sagarr vehicle of Dumaguete malfunctioned. Its driver, Dino Randy Gazon, 43, maneuvered the vehicle to the right side of the road, causing it to hit the rip rap and fall on its side.

The injured passengers were Barangay Councilmen Ben Baldado and Antonitta Amores, Day Care workers Perpetua Ragay and Lowela David, barangay health worker Marlita Velos, barangay nutrition scholar Anita Baldado, youth leader Ronald Pintor, purok leaders Elizabeth Villanueva and Flordeliza Pinero, and utility worker Josephine Alviola.

All were declared out of danger, but driver Gazon was admitted at the Holy Child Hospital due to a fractured right arm.

Village chief Diony Amores, who was in a multi-cab of the barangay, said he saw how the Sagarr vehicle avoided colliding with his car and crashed into the wall of the riprap by the roadside. The damage could have been worse if there was a collision, he recounted.

Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria immediately went to the two hospitals where the victims were brought, and promised to give assistance especially to the driver, who is a job-order worker of the city government.