The mini dump truck that fell on a roadside cliff in Boljoon town, southern Cebu. | Photo courtesy of Clark John Roma
BOLJOON, Cebu, Philippines — The Boljoon Municipal government will provide financial assistance to the families, who have lost and have injured children during the early morning accident on July 19 in Barangay Upper Becceril of the town, which is estimated to be at least 100 kilometers south of Cebu City.
Read more: 9 killed after student-loaded dump truck falls off cliff in Boljoon
Boljoon Mayor Marlou Derama assured that they would give a partial financial aid of P20,000 to the families of each of the nine children, who died in the accident.
Derama also said that they would also give a P15,000 cash as partial financial assistance to those who were critically injured.
He said those with minor injuries would receive up to P2,000 each.
He also said that this were just partial financial aid because he had yet to ask the municipal council to allot funds for the burial assistance of the deceased children and to help those critically injured children in their hospital expenses.
Read more: Cebu province to shoulder hospitalization, burial expenses of Boljoon accident victims
Aside from the financial assistance, Derama has also ordered an investigation to find out why the mini dumptruck, which was bought last 2016, lost its brake, causing the tragic accident which killed 11 children in the early morning of July 19.
Derama said the dump truck had been used in the past three years to fetch the students of mountain barangays in Nangka, San Antonio, and Upper Becirril for activities in the town center.
On Friday morning, July 19, 2019, the truck was supposed to fetch 30 people including at least 20 students to the attend not a Health Week event as earlier reported but a Nutrition Month Cultural and District Meet that the Department of Education (DepEd) was hosting.
Most of the students were athletes because they were set to compete in the DepEd District games.
“Mangayo lang unta mig pasaylo sa mga ginikanan sa mga nangamatay. Dili gyod nato matag-an ang panghitabo. Wala ta nagdahom nga ing-ani ang panghitabo,” said Derama in an interview with CDN Digital.
(I would like to apologize to the parents of the killed children. We could not have known what would happen. We did not expect the accident would happen.)
The mayor said that the dump truck functioned well in the past and was maintained by the town as it was often used to carry materials to and from the mountain barangays as well as fetch people.
The truck was specifically bought to serve the mountain barangays and Derama trusted the quality of the Foton truck as it was brand new when it was bought in 2016.
Read more: Boljoon truck accident: Was driver drunk?
He said they were waiting for the results of the police investigation if the driver of the truck, 50-year-old Danilo Nieres, was indeed drunk during the incident and if he was driving too fast causing the truck to fall off the bridge.
Yet, Derama said that he had known Nieres to be a careful driver and could not easily believe that he drove drunk on that Friday morning.
“Nakusog guro to siya kay nawad-an siyag break ba, nya dulhugon na tong dapita,” said Deramo.
Nieres has been working as a truck driver for the municipality for a year as a job-order employee./dbs