17 hurt in Cotabato province road accident

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines — Up to 17 hitchhikers were injured when a light truck carrying them rolled over at a stretch of a highway in Makilala town in Cotabato province on Monday afternoon.

In an initial report released an hour after the incident, the Makilala Municipal Police Station said the ill-fated white Bonggo light truck came from President Roxas town in Cotabato, en route to Malungon, Sarangani, when it figured in the accident.

Witnesses have told policemen who responded to the accident that the vehicle first hit a fruit vending stall along a stretch of the highway in Barangay Bulatukan before it turned-turtle and landed at one side of the thoroughfare.

All of its injured passengers and driver were transported to different hospitals by municipal emergency responders for treatment, according to the Makilala MPS.