KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 18 Dec) – The police chief of the municipality of Antipas in North Cotabato died in a vehicular accident along the highway here Sunday, reports said.
Four others were hurt in the accident that killed Chief Insp. Raymond Senier Sarmogenes.
Supt. Bernard Tayong, spokesman of the Cotabato Police Provincial Office (CPPO), said they would give the highest funeral honors to Sarmogenes for his service and dedication.
Tayong said Sarmogenes had just dropped by at the provincial police headquarters at Amas complex here before his Avanza car collided with a Willy’s jeep along the Matalam-Kidapawan highway, particularly at Kilometer 110, around 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
“It would be a miracle if the driver of such car or his passenger would survive in that incident,” he described the wreck of Sarmogenes’s vehicle.
“It hit him hard. I suspect he was driving too fast, but of course, I will leave it to the traffic investigator to determine,” said Tayong.
Tayong said he was also upset with what happened to the driver and passengers of the Willy’s jeep.
Joselito de Julian Aberde just fetched his wife Evelyn, 48, after she was released from a hospital here due to an illness. They were with their children Jenny Joy, 26, and John Rey, 18, when the accident happened.
The whole family, according to Tayong, sustained injuries in different parts of their bodies.
Evelyn was hit on her head and is still in critical condition, the CPPO spokesman said.
The collision was the third vehicular accident to happen along the highway in Kidapawan City since Dec. 11, reports from the local police traffic division said.
Sarmogenes’s body will be brought to his family in General Santos City for the funeral.
While the CPPO has yet to deploy the officer-in-charge of the Antipas police, the municipal executive police officer (MESPO) is tasked as the caretaker, Tayong said. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)