6 dead as car plunges into deep cliff in Sarangani

COTABATO CITY (Updated 2:21 p.m.)— Six travelers, two of them children, died after the car carrying them went wayward and plunged into a cliff along a highway in Barangay Nagpan in Malungon, Sarangani on Thursday afternoon, August 29.

Captain Akmad Omar Diocolano, deputy chief of the Malungon municipal police, told reporters on Friday, August 30 that probers and barangay officials are still trying to determine the real cause of the accident.

In its final report released on Friday afternoon, the Malungon Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office identified the fatalities as 34-year-old car driver Jay-Ar Mandawan, Querubin Luchavez, 39, Ernesto Xicay,59, 30-year-old Mary Ann Lupian and her two preschool children.

The victims were on their way home to Mati City in Davao Oriental from General Santos City where they visited relatives.

Police investigators and personnel of the Malungon Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office have a theory that Mandawan and his other passengers were under the influence of liquor when they figured in the accident.

They were reported to have attended a clan meeting somewhere in General Santos City before they rode their Toyota Vios and left, supposedly bound for Mati City via the General Santos-Davao Highway.