A WOMAN denied Thursday, January 5, that she is the owner of a vehicle that rammed into a group of New Year’s Day revelers, killing three persons and injuring several others in Barangay Puerto, Cagayan de Oro City, last January 1.

According to the Puerto police report distributed to the media, the vehicle, a Mitsubishi Strada pick-up truck bearing plate number KDA-679, was allegedly owned by a certain Carla Sofia Alquitela with address at Damilag, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon.

The vehicle, however, is registered to a Florence Ebuna, of Camp Philips, in Manolo Fortich, the police added.

But in her January 5 letter to SunStar Cagayan de Oro, Carla Sofia Alquitela Magallanes clarified she is not the owner of the pick-up truck.

“I vehemently deny and refute such baseless allegation. I have not acquired the aforesaid vehicle nor I have caused the registration of the same under my name... I am not the owner of such vehicle,” Magallanes said.

Magallanes, who has been a Cebu City resident since 1990, said: “In my peaceful years of existence, I have neither violated any law nor got entangled in any legal issue.”

In a previous news article about the vehicular incident, Police Officer 3 Lemuel Tecson, desk officer at the Puerto police station, was quoted as saying they are searching for the truck's owner to settle the hospital and funeral bills.