KIANGAN, Ifugao – Two farmers died after a truck fully loaded with tomatoes suffered mechanical trouble and fell off a 300meter deep ravine at sitio Patkik, Julongan, here, late Saturday night.
The said incident was reported to police authorities of the Kiangan Municipal Police Station only at around 8 am of July 23, 2023 or nearly 12 hours since it transpired in an uninhabited portion of the Tinoc-Kiangan road.
Police Brig. Gen David K. Peredo, Jr., regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) in the Cordillera, identified the fatalities as Cesar Undo Cadingpal, Jr., 39, single, farmer and a resident of Latbang, Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya and Rene Undo Cadingpal, 27, married, farmer and a resident of Eheb, Tinoc, Ifugao.
Investigation showed that the farmers were set to bring their tomato produce to the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Trading Center in Bambang and were traversing the Tinoc-Kayapa road when their vehicle allegedly experienced mechanical trouble that caused the older Cadingpal to lose control of the same until it fell into the deep ravine.
Residents living near the area informed probers that they heard a loud sound similar to a vehicle that fell into a ravine at the middle of the night but they did not allegedly bother to look into what happened.
At around 8 am of Sunday, farmers who went to attend to their plants saw skid marks on the site of the road that prompted them to look into the ravine and saw the back of the truck that earlier fell in the said area.
The concerned farmers immediately reported the matter to the police that conducted the retrieval operation on the victims who were lifeless when extricated from the damaged vehicle.
The tomatoes that were supposed to be delivered to the trading center were scattered along the road and in the ravine.
Probers are still conducting an investigation on the cause of the vehicular accident that resulted to the untimely demise of the two farmers. By Dexter A. See
