Drunk driver hits three trucks in Davao del Sur highway

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Policemen found abandoned after an hour-long chase a hauler truck whose drunken driver hit three vehicles plying a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Matanao town in Davao Del Sur Sunday.

Driver Arante Mahinay, and his helper, identified only as Solaiman, managed to escape even before policemen could reach Barangay Bulatukan in Makilala, North Cotabato where they left their truck.

Mahinay’s truck, bearing license plate REF 144, side-swept three vehicles he overtook while driving at the border of Matanao and Makilala towns and escaped despite attempts by barangay watchmen to flag him down.

PO1 Arthur Papas, traffic investigator of the Matanao municipal police, said Mahinay also nearly rammed a group of construction workers pouring wet concrete and aggregates on a portion of the highway in Bansalan town also in Davao del Sur. 

Pursuing members of the Makilala and Matanao police, backed by combatants of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, found Mahinay’s truck on a farm-to-market road in Sitio Tumbo, a secluded area in Barangay Old Bulatukan.

Truck owner Jimmy Sumalayan, whose address in North Cotabato was traced with the help of local officials, has assured the police he would pay for the damage caused by Mahinay’s reckless driving to the three other trucks that figured in the accident.

Witnesses told investigators the tipsy Mahinay and his helper escaped towards a rubber plantation east of Barangay Old Bulatukan. - John Unson