SIXTEEN-year-old Irvin Jay Cantiveros was supposed to attend his first day in college last Monday. He was going to work for a nautical degree from the University of the Visayas because he wanted to help his parents.
All of his plans came to a sudden halt when he was killed by a speeding car while walking with his friends in front of a department store in Barangay Lawaan 3, Talisay City last Sunday dawn.
Aside from Cantiveros, three of his friends also suffered multiple injuries in the accident.
Driver Emmanuel Sanchez, 31, subsequently surrendered to the police and was charged yesterday with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and multiple physical injuries.
A security camera installed at the department store where Cantiveros was last seen caught the gruesome accident. The video, posted on Facebook by Cantiveros’s aunt Karina Fernandez, was shared 398 times as of yesterday.
PO2 Marvin Papellero, a traffic investigator assigned in Talisay City, said that Cantiveros and his three friends Jerry Villamor, 20; John Rebin Mascarinas, 18; and Rodney Gregorio, 17, were walking home around 3:30 a.m. last Sunday after attending a fiesta in Barangay Linao.
The four friends were walking toward Barangay Pooc when they were suddenly hit by a blue car driven by Sanchez.
Sanchez, a resident of Springwood Village in Minglanilla, was allegedly asleep when he drove his car on the sidewalk and hit the four men.
All four men were brought to the Talisay City District Hospital but Cantiveros died.
Fernandez told Sun.Star Cebu that even though Sanchez was arrested and charged for her nephew’s death, their family feels that it isn’t enough.
She said that a habal-habal driver allegedly saw Sanchez running away after the accident.
“Didto na niya naapsi sa may eskina Camella (Homes in Lawaan 1) The authorities caught up with him near the corner of Camella Homes in Lawaan 1),” Fernandez said.
Fernandez said that she and Cantiveros’s surviving family will do what it takes to seek justice. She asked for a copy of the surveillance footage from the department store, which the manager gave.
Carmen accident
In a separate interview, Winna Sanchez, the suspect’s wife, told Sun.Star Cebu she and her husband would rather not comment as the case is already in court.
Cantiveros, the eldest of three children, will be buried on Sunday.
Yesterday, a bus rammed into a mango tree along the national highway in Barangay Puente, Carmen at 11 a.m.
Driver Edilberto Librado, 48, and nine passengers were injured.
Traffic investigator PO2 Ever Villacarlos said that Librado, who bruised his left leg, surrendered to the police. He was driving the Ceres bus (CEH-171) from Tuburan to Cebu City.
The passengers who suffered minor injuries were Glicerio Sarvida, 53; Eric Toring, 41; Toring’s wife Charlotte, 41; Toring’s son Harvey John, 19; Editha Seno, 55; Maria Dolores Montebon, 30; Analyn Tungal, 30; Jodelyn Alivio, 18; and Tata Cole, 39.
Villacarlos, in a phone interview, said that Librado heard an explosion near the engine beneath the bus. He then lost control of the vehicle, which left the road and hit the mango tree.
The tree broke.
Librado, a bus driver for nearly two years, was not drunk while he was behind the wheels. He told the police the bus was regularly checked twice a week.
Librado was also involved in a road accident two years ago when the bus he was driving plowed into a house in Tabuelan, northern Cebu. No one died.
Villacarlos said the police will wait for the injured passengers to press charges against the driver.