COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A woman was killed while two others, one of them a two-year-old child, were badly hurt when a wayward payloader plowed through houses along a highway in Iligan City Friday.
The Iligan City Police Office, in a statement released to reporters Saturday, identified the fatality as Carmelita Unotan Pandanan, who was declared dead on arrival in a hospital where she was rushed by emergency responders for treatment.
She and the two other victims, Melca Villamea and a two-year-old child, were in the two houses, made only of semi-permanent materials, that a payloader hit after its operator, Sherwin Caballero, lost control after the brake system of the heavy equipment malfunctioned.
Barangay officials had told reporters Caballero tried to escape, but was cornered by volunteer community watchmen after a brief chase.
Caballero is now locked in a detention facility of one of the police stations in Iligan City.