Tragedy in Balamban

This was the sad headline that was the front page of Cebu papers this Monday morning. A day of mourning for relatives of those who passed away when a tourist bus booked by a group of 50 Iranian nationals reported to be mostly medical students who had an outing for sight seeing and relaxation fell instead into a deep ravine while traversing the Trans Central Highway in Balamban town Cebu at around 10 AM Sunday Philippine time.

It was supposed to be a day of fun and relaxation. But midway to the day, tragedy struck which left 20 people dead including the Filipino driver. As one can see from the photos of the accident site, the bus bearing the plate GWZ-666 was turned upside down.

Not all of the victims were students. Some of the reported injured were nurses, doctors including an ophthalmologist and a nanny.

Our condolences to the Iranians and the relatives of the other passengers in this accident. I had a classmate in my masteral studies before who was Iranian who was an alumni of one of the medical schools where some of these students were said to have enrolled. I hope he had no relatives among those who died in that tragic accident.

This tragedy brings into mind also the last time when medical and allied medical studies from outside the Philippines as a community mourned the death of their loved ones. It was December 1999 when a ferry sank leaving several Nepalese students enrolled in Cebu schools dead and missing as they were about to enjoy the holidays as a group. A good friend of mine Sujan Shrestha was among the dead.

Here is the link to the story on this recent Balamban tragedy.