Driver faces raps for tragedy

ILAGAN, Isabela — Police have filed charges of multiple homicide and multiple serious physical injuries against the driver of an overloaded Ford Fiera that smashed into a tree here the other day, killing 12 people, 11 of them grade schoolers aged 7 to 14, and injuring 45 others.

The children, all pupils of the Barangay Palueg Elementary School, along with their teachers and parents, were on their way home from a picnic at the Sta. Victoria Caves here when the vehicle lost its brakes, causing it to slam into a tree along the national highway in Barangay Allinguigan here.

Charged was driver Oscar Ulnagan, a resident of Barangay San Antonio here.

Meanwhile, in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, four people were killed and 14 others were hurt when the passenger jeepney they were riding in bumped into a trailer truck the other day. — Charlie Lagasca, Rene Alviar and Ed Amoroso