By Sam Ramos
Five individuals lost their lives in separate incidents on January 1, including a vehicular accident and two drowning cases, the Cotabato Police Provincial Office (CPPO) reported on Thursday.
Lt. Juaren Caang, CPPO spokesperson, said three individuals, identified as Almira Pillado, Michelle Pillado, and Liza Rulica, all from M’lang town, died in a vehicular accident in Barangay Central Malamote, Matalam town. The incident involved a passenger multicab vehicle driven by Dennis Pillado, which went out of control along the national highway.
Eight others, including four minors, sustained injuries in the crash. All injured individuals are from Dalipe, M’lang. Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the accident.
In separate incidents on the same day, two men drowned in major streams in the province. One victim, Danilo Tapican, 55, from Barangay Pag-asa in M’lang, was found lifeless near a village bridge. The other, identified as Gilbert Cardoza, slipped and drowned while fishing along the Libungan River in Sitio Labaja, Poblacion, Libungan.
Despite the tragic incidents, Caang described the Christmas and New Year celebrations in North Cotabato as generally peaceful. However, he noted isolated incidents, including the killing of Shiela Ramos Bautista, an engineering professor at the University of Southern Mindanao, Kidapawan City campus, and a grenade explosion in Matalam town on December 30.
Bautista was fatally shot inside her vehicle parked along the Davao-Cotabato highway in Barangay Binoligan, Kidapawan City. The grenade blast in Barangay Marbel, Matalam, occurred at around 11:50 p.m., claiming the life of Romel Presto Cabiso.
Both incidents remain under investigation, Caang said.