2 dead as car ram highway center barrier in Butuan City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two siblings were killed instantly when their car rammed a center barrier in a stretch of a highway in a commercial area in Butuan City before dawn Saturday.

In separate reports on Sunday, the Butuan City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-13 identified the fatalities as Renante Gavino Elisan, 47, a seaman working for a transnational shipping firm, and his brother, the 44-year-old Frederick Gavino Elisan.

Police investigators who responded to the incident had told reporters that the Elisans were both under the influence of liquor when they figured in the accident.

It was the older Elisan who was driving the car that hit the center island at a stretch of the J.C. Aquino Avenue that  straddles through one of the business hubs in Butuan City, while on their way home to the Ram City Homes in Barangay Libertad from a drinking spree somewhere.

They were reportedly declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital where emergency responders brought them for treatment.

Officials of the Butuan CPO had told reporters relatives immediately claimed and brought the remains of the Elisans to a mortuary.