CABANATUAN CITY – A 38 year-old woman and a 16-year old-boy were killed in separate freak accidents in Nueva Ecija recently.
Gemma Pabular Javillo, a mother of five, was killed when a trailer truck (BUC-873) rammed into their house along Sta. Rosa-Tarlac Road in Barangay Rajal Centro, Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija at about 10 p.m Wednesday night.
Investigation showed that the victim, along with her family and that of her sister-in-law where sleeping in a house of light materials on the shoulder of the road when the truck, driven by a certain Arturo Garcia, 37, of Aduas Sur, this city, slipped on the wet highway.
“There were a total of eleven children sleeping with their parents awakened by the loud crash and the walls falling on us,” said Rosemarie Javillo, the victim’s sister who is the mother of the six other children.
Javillo said they have been settled in the place between the highway and an irrigation canal for at least five years now.
The truck was loaded with rice husks.
An amicable settlement is on-going between the two parties, police said.
In Barangay San Josef here, 16-year-old Alvin Santos died of drowning after being choked with a “three-finger sized” tilapia he caught in the Pampanga River, a few meters away from their residence at about 5 p.m. Tuesday.
PO2 Johnalyn Casimiro of the city police’s women and children protection desk said the victim went to the river with a brother and friends to fish. But the boy, a second year high school student, held his first catch by his lips and dived again on the water to look for more fish.
Virgilio Santos, the boy’s father said, his son usually used nets but went on bare hands that time because the water was not clear due to occasional rains.
“Wala silang ginamit, nangapa lang sila dahil malabo ang tubig at marami silang nahuhuli pag ganoon,” he said. Fishing, he added is a routine for his son who would cook them for the family before resting.
“Hindi siya mahilig sa lakwatsa. Pagkagaling sa eskwela, mangingisda siya,” he said.
He said the victim’s brother even tried to help the latter take the fish out his mouth but proved futile.
