2 soldiers die in SCotabato highway crash

COTABATO City, Philippines - Two soldiers were killed when their motorcycle collided head-on with a car in Tupi town in South Cotabato Thursday, police said.

The fatalities, Akip Totoh and Alsibar Salip Sapri, both belonged to the Army’s 27th Infantry Battalion.

Senior Inspector Verlen Pampolina, deputy chief of the Tupi municipal police, said the soldiers were overtaking a vehicle when their motorcycle collided with a car speeding at the opposite direction of the highway in Tupi town.

“They came from a gasoline station at the town proper and where on their way to their camp when the accident happened,” Pampolina said.

The black Toyoto Vios car, bearing license plates ZNE 132, that hit the soldiers’ motorcycle was bound for Koronadal City, the provincial capital of South Cotabato, some 15 kilometers northeast of Tupi.

The car’s driver, Joseph Cruz, immediately surrendered to the police and turned over his driver's license to the authorities.

Pampolina said the car is owned by the pharmaceutical firm United Laboratory Incorporated, where Cruz works as a salesman.