CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Grieving families of victims of Balingasag, Misamis Oriental road accident on Wednesday filed charges against the driver whose vehicle killed nine persons in a tragic road crash on January 12, 2022.
Senior Master Sgt. Rogel Pabatao, investigator at the Balingasag municipal police office, in a phone interview said that so far five families of those who were killed in the accident on Jan. 12, 2022, have resorted to legal action over the incident.
Police report have it, twelve (12) persons lost their lives when a truck driven by Junryl Cagmat lost its brake and rammed into a pile of concrete blocks.
Cagmat faces multiple charges of reckless imprudence resulting to homicide and multiple serious physical injuries.
The passengers, Pabatao said, were on their way to a beach resort in neighboring Lagonglong town when the accident happened at Sitio Baga-ay of Barangay Baliwagan in Balingasag.
The truck belongs to Nora Odchigue, who is among the surviving victims.
Killed instantly were nine of the passengers, while the three, two children and a baby in a womb, died in the hospital several hours later.
Pabatao said the one of the victims, who was seven months pregnant at the time of the incident, lost her baby due to stillbirth.
The fatalities were identified as Edilberto Albios; Elizabeth Bagabaldo, 58; Allan Cadenas, 58; Cristina Llanasa Cadenas, 45; Joseph Salise Dalanta, 56; Susan Henon Dalanta, 52; Niño Llanasa; Estela Mae Halago Mara-on, 23; and Loling Sinag-od, 60 while two children, Farah Lunggayan, 3, and Camille Sinad-og Sevilla, 12, expired later in a hospital.
The families of Maraon, Bagabaldo, the two Dalantas (Joseph and Susan), and Sinag-od, have executed their affidavit of complaints at the Balingasag municipal police station.
“The complainants have already signed their affidavits in our office,” Pabatao said.In an earlier interview, Pabatao said the aggrieved parties only want to charge the driver, but he added that the truck’s owner could also be held liable too.-Jigger Jerusalem
