4 tricycle passengers die, 2 hurt in Sultan Kudarat highway mishap

COTABATO CITY— Four commuters died while two others were hurt when a sports utility vehicle rammed from behind a tricycle in Barangay Kalawag 2 in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat on Wednesday night.

The Isulan Municipal Police Station said four passengers of the tricycle that figured in the accident, Gilbert Lanterna, Arante Matignao, Roselyn Vallero and Joseph Cardiente, were declared dead on arrival by physicians at the nearby Sultan Kudarat Provincial Hospital where emergency responders brought them for treatment.

They were in a tricycle hit by the Toyota Fortuner of a policeman, Master Sgt. Jay Relox, while trailing behind.

Lt. Col. Richelu Alucilja, chief of the Isulan municipal police, said on Friday that the victims were on their way home from a community patronal fiesta in Barangay Kenram in the same town when the vehicle of Relox collided with the tricycle carrying them.

Relox is assigned at the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office, according to Alucilja.

Responding probers from the Isulan Municipal Police Station told reporters tricycle driver Kennedy Santacera and another passenger, Lendo Bataoan, were badly hurt in the accident, now confined in a hospital.

Relox immediately yielded to the Isulan MPS and turned in his driver’s license and Toyota Fortuner.