Two people died last Friday, April 25, 2025, in separate accidents involving motorcycles in the capital town of Virac and in San Andres, the Catanduanes police reported.
San Andres police chief Maj. Francis Tabo I said that the first vehicular mishap occurred at 1:15 PM in barangay Datag, San Andres along the national road when Myro Matanseco Manlangit, who was crossing the road, was sideswiped by a speeding motorcycle coming from San Isidro towards Comagaycay.
The driver of the motorcycle, identified as Randy Sumalde Vigen, and his backrider Gabriel Magno Icawat survived the crash with physical injuries and, together with the seriously hurt Manlangit, were brought by responding personnel of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) to the Juan M. Alberto Memorial Hospital.
While undergoing treatment at said hospital, the pedestrian victim as well as Vigen were referred by duty physician Dr. Aldem Boñales to undergo thorough medical treatment at the provincial hospital in Virac.
However, the referral did not push through as JMAMDH was informed that the Intensive Care Units (ICU) at the Eastern Bicol Medical Center (EBMC) and the Catanduanes Doctors’ Hospital, Inc. (CDHI) were fully occupied.
This left the hospital with no alternative but to accommodate the two victims, with Manlangit succumbing to traumatic head injury and other physical injuries at 3:10 PM of the same day.
The police report also stated that the motorcycle involved is registered to one Girlie Silos Avila of Palnab del Sur Virac.
Nine hours after the Datag incident, another vehicular accident involving the two-wheeled vehicles occurred, this time in San Vicente, Virac.
Investigators disclosed that at 10:45 PM of April 25, a black Yamaha Mio driven by Daniel Clores Tarnate, 27, of Guinobatan, Bato, was struck by another oncoming motorcycle, a black Honda TMX Supremo with contractual employee Joean Tatel Torzar, 41, of San Roque, Bato, as driver and Bagumbayan resident Roger Timola Balinquit Jr., 48, as backrider.
Responding personnel of the Virac MDRRMO brought the three casualties to the provincial hospital.
Torzar, who sustained a traumatic head injury, was declared dead on arrival by EBMC physician Dr. Jefferson Espinola at 11:35 PM.
Tarnate and Balinquit also suffered serious physical injuries and are undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Both police reports did not state if any or all of the motorcycle riders were under the influence of liquor.