More than a hundred hogs ran loose on a busy Navotas City highway prompting residents scramble out of their homes Tuesday evening to stop their escape after the truck transporting them figured in an accident.
James Rumilla, one of the dozens of men who responded, said they immediately ran after seeing the 14-wheeler truck fall on its side at the corner of C-3 and R-10 roads.
“Pagkabagsak, bagsakan agad yung mga baboy. Syempre tumakbo agad kami para umalalay sa driver, eh kawawa naman kung papabayaan, tatakbo yung mga baboy (Right after the truck fell, the hogs managed to get out. Of course, we ran towards the truck to help the driver. We could not let the hogs run loose),” Rumilla told reporters in an interview.
The driver of the truck said they were turning towards R-10, an accident-prone area, when the vehicle lost its balance.
Around 160 hogs inside the cage then careened into the right side that left the driver to completely lose control of his truck.
Some 40 hogs, supposedly bound for a slaughterhouse in Kawit, Cavite, were pinned to death on the highway or were butchered by residents when they saw them already gasping their last breaths.
The price of each hog was pegged at P25,000.
Videos on social media showed residents butchering the hogs that died on the spot. Some even took whole hogs covered with mud and carted them away on their tricycles or pedicabs.