Jeep carrying seniors falls into Kalinga ravine: 14 dead

Fourteen persons, 13 of them senior citizens, were killed and 25 others were injured when an overloaded jeepney plunged into a ravine 80 meters deep in Balbalan town in Kalinga on Tuesday.

The Cordillera police said the accident occurred in Barangay Dao-angan at around 2:30 p.m.

Initial investigation showed the driver of the jeepney, Francisco Gumaad Jr., lost control of the wheel when the engine stopped while driving on a sloping road.

Victorino Banglagan, 67; Soledad Dammay, 70; Eliza Amoga, 70; Rosario Badong, 65; Isabel Bagni, 67; Agida Palangdao, 62; Lolita Latawan, 68; William Gamongan, 65; Leota Maday, 72; Angelina Benito, 62; Benjamin Badong, 68; Teresa Dulansi, 70, and Annie Baluga, 45, died at the scene.

Martin Canao, 67, died while being treated at the Kalinga Provincial Hospital.

Gumaad and 24 other passengers, 16 of them women, were injured and brought to the Western Kalinga District Hospital.

The victims were on their way home from Barangay Poblacion, where they got their monthly stipend under the government’s social pension program for indigent senior citizens, when the accident occurred.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development said they would give P15,000 in burial assistance to each of the families of the victims.