4 dead as fallen tree hits tricycle in Lanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Four villagers died instantly when a large tree felled by strong winds hit the tricycle they were riding together in Barangay Cabsaran in the seaside Malabang town in Lanao del Sur on Friday, September 13.

In separate reports on Saturday, the Ministry of Social Services and Development-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MSSD-BARMM) and the Lanao del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office confirmed the incident that left four residents of Malabang, three of them adolescent female students of an Islamic school in the municipality, dead.

Three injured companions of the four fatalities were rushed to the Doctor Serapio Montañer Memorial Hospital in Malabang for treatment, according to officials of the MSSD-BARMM in Lanao del Sur province.

The office of BARMM’s social services minister, Raissa Jajurie, has extended initial relief support to the families of the four Maranaos who perished in the incident.

Jajurie had also assured of MSSD-BARMM’s assistance in facilitating their burials.

Employees of the Malabang Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection in the municipality, soldiers and policemen have, since Saturday dawn, been clearing stretches of the highways connecting Malabang to Cotabato City and Zamboanga del Sur province from trees felled by strong winds that battered Malabang and nearby coastal towns on Friday.