WITH puffy eyes and tears streaming down her weary face, Remedios Abrio sobbed a moment after another only to realize that the time her husband Ronnie sent her to her place of work would be his last trip.
Remedios did not even get the chance to say her last goodbye to her three children, Kenneth, Stephanie and Sophia. Her heart sank in disbelief when relatives called her at midnight while she was still working at the Del Monte cannery that her whole family died a tragic death after a drunk driver seemingly went berserk and crashed a six wheeler truck into the motorcycle that Ronnie was driving while their children were riding at the back.
On April 9, Ronnie, 46, after sending Remedios to her workplace in the Del Monte cannery in Barangay Bugo at 8 p.m., went to their relatives to fetch their children at Barangay Cugman. Kenneth was a Grade Five student; Sophia was seven years old while Stephanie was five years old. She was in kindergarten.
Around 9 p.m., a speeding delivery truck at 100 kilometers per hours hit her husband's motorbike which at that time was also transporting her children. They were supposedly on their way home to Isla Bugnaw in Consolacion after visiting a relative in Cugman.
According to her, Ronnie was working as a security guard for a bank alongside her to support their three children.
Remedios is determined in filing murder cases against the drunk driver of the elf truck that ended the life of her family. For now, she and some of her relatives are mourning their loss in Bollozos Funeral Homes.
The same can be said of the family of 17-year-old Mae Bonior. That same night, Bunior was one of the passengers of the motorela that was also hit by the same speeding elf truck. Bunior, who was on her way home that night met with instantaneous death upon collision.
Therese Jean Elizalde, one of Bonior's friends since their days in Cugman National High School, said the death of her friend is so unbelievable.
Many of her friends are also angry and frustrated about what happened to Bonior as they remembered her as a girl with high ambitions in life.
Apparently, a day before her death on April 9, Bonior has been recognized as a grade 11 completer at the Cagayan de Oro College. Last 2015, she was even crowned as Bukidnon's Miss Lingatun.
Now, her family in Bollozos Funeral Homes and her closest friends on social media are crying out for justice, that the drunken driver of the elf truck be punished justly for what he did.
Benjamin Nacaya, meanwhile, could only feel pity, pain, and longing for his son, the transgender victim Vivien Nacaya. Like Bonior and the Abrios, Nacaya did not survive the accident caused by the speeding elf truck.
Teary-eyed with a bottle of beer on his hand, Benjamin narrated how his relatives called him that night saying that Vivien was beaten in Cugman.
When he got to incident, he discovered a more tragic end has befallen his son when he saw him bathed in his own blood. Forced by his relatives to go home, he immediately shared the sad news of Vivien's death to his younger siblings.
According to Benjamin, aside from being with his friends, his son was always spending time in their shop in Bulua. They think that his son might have been on his way home to Cugman on the night of the accident.
After the preparations of Vivien's funeral and burial, Benjamin said he will focus on filing charges against the suspects.
Another victim, Vanessa Tadlas was on the same motorela with Bonior on the accident.
According to her cousin Gerly Paican, Tadlas was brought to the hospital however she was already suffering major internal damage. Her ribs were broken and her heart shifted position causing her labored breathing. She ultimately died a few hours after being admitted to the hospital.
Tadlas was working for the Cagayan de Oro chapter of the Philippine Red Cross.
On Sunday evening, April 9, seven people were killed, including three children, and four others were badly injured in a tragic road mishap involving a six-wheeler truck, two motorcycles and a motorized tricycle along Cugman highway, Cagayan de Oro City.
The two suspects, half-brothers Felix and Freddie Talisayan are now in the custody of Police Station 10 in Cugman.
Felix stated that his brother Freddie was indeed drunk driving that night. Apparently, Freddie and some of his peers have been drinking since Sunday morning.