45 Isabela folk survive highway mishap

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Forty-five passengers of a provincial government-owned shuttle bus cheated death when the vehicle fell on its side along the national highway in Isabela last Saturday afternoon.

Reports said only 12 passengers, mostly barangay officials and health workers of Isabela’s San Mariano town, sustained injuries but were declared out of danger.

The passengers, some of them with their family members, had come from Pamplona town in northern Cagayan for their “Lakbay-Aral” program and were on their way home when they met the accident.

Reports said the brakes of the bus malfunctioned as the driver, a certain Rogelio Pascua, was negotiating a slippery, asphalted stretch of the highway in Barangay San Juan in Ilagan, the capital town.