4 dead in Christmas Day car crash in Tagaytay

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines — A speeding car, carrying a group of friends, crashed into a concrete wall and left four people dead and one badly injured in Tagaytay City in Cavite on Christmas Day.

Police Officer 3 Semdan Sitchon, the case investigator, named the lone survivor as Jelil Ampuan, 16.

Sitchon said Ampuan’s friends and co-passengers in the car, identified as Manilyn Quinzon, 23; Renilyn Peñaranda, 20; and Paysalin Benito, whose age was not immediately available, died on the spot.  The driver, Jamil Ampuan, 22, died in the hospital. The Ampuans were brothers.

In a phone interview Thursday, Sitchon said the victims’ car was running above 100 kilometers per hour (kph) along Aguinaldo Highway in Barangay (village) Crossing before it went out of control and slammed into a concrete wall of a townhouse unit at around 3:30 a.m. on December 25.

“A witness from a nearby hotel said the car screeched as it ran too fast,” Sitchon said.

Sitchon said that at the time of the accident, the road was empty and well-lit and the weather was clear in the often foggy city.

The victims’ families, all from Dasmariñas City in Cavite, told the police that the group left their homes before Christmas eve. The victims were all found to be intoxicated with alcohol based on the doctors’ findings, Sitchon said.

“We also found messages on their cell phones about what drinks they planned to buy (before the accident),” he said.