ILOILO CITY – Seventeen persons were confirmed dead when a passenger bus plunged off a cliff in Hamtic, Antique on Tuesday afternoon, December 5.
The victims were identified as bus driver Ricky Serios, bus conductor Wilmar Marcelino, bus inspector Jose Glenn Fandagani, Joemarie Alcala, Francis John Vuelga, Tom Elizaga, Ramon Salvani V, Fritzie Javellana, Jeanine Marquez;
Patrick Mosoni, Jevy Burdago, Federica Sing, Nelson Espina, Jim Andrei Secondes, Wilmer Dellaba, a one-year-old boy, and an unidentified male.
SEVENTEEN persons were killed when a passenger bus fell off a cliff in Hamtic town, Antique province on Tuesday, December 5, 2023. (Iloilo City Emergency Responders)
Gov. Rhodora “Dodod” Cadiao on Wednesday, December 6, clarified that only 17 perished in the 4:30 p.m. tragedy.
Cadiao apologized for the mix-up. “Apologies from all of us. Once and for all, we have to rectify as the (number) was bloated,” said Cadiao in a press conference on Wednesday.
MAP of Culasi, Antique. The ill-fated Ceres bus was bound for this town when it met a tragic fate.
The Antique provincial government said on Tuesday night that 25 out of the more than 50 persons on board the Ceres bus with body No. 6289 bound for Culasi in Antique were killed after the vehicle lost its brakes and plunged off a cliff in Barangay Igbucagay.
Cadiao said that numbers from the Hamtic Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO), the Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and volunteer rescue groups were merely visual observations.
She said the confusion was worsened by poor mobile signal in the area.
Antique DRMMO chief Broderick Train said that 16 bodies were retrieved from the site on Tuesday night.
One of the critically injured died on Wednesday morning, Train said.
CERES Bus 6289 (FB)
Bus operator Vallacar Transit Inc. said 27 persons were onboard the bus when the incident happened.
Cadiao called on Vallacar Transit management to get in touch with the families of casualties and those in critical condition.