Tagaytay car accident victims cover photos: A premonition of their 'final destination?'

MANILA, Philippines- Days following the tragic death of six minors involved in the Tagaytay car crash on Sunday, January 17, a netizen has apparently discovered the chilling connection of the victims’ Facebook cover photos to their tragic deaths.

Christian Layug was shocked to see that the cover photos of graduating junior high school students appear to indicate their ill fate. A collage of the screenshot of their cover photos, created by Layug, quickly made rounds on social media.

The victims’ Facebook cover photos apparently revealed clues to their tragic death.
PHOTO CREDIT: Christian Layug

In the caption, Layug wrote: “Yung four minors po yung mga passengers na namatay sa car accident sa Tagaytay tignan niyo yung cover photos nila. Road, Signs, Smoke then Darkness. Then yung single po yun yung Driver nila tignan niyo rin yung cover photo niya nakakakilabot.”

(Take a look at the cover photos of the four minors who died in a car accident in Tagaytay. Road, Signs, Smoke then Darkness. The single screenshot shows the chilling cover photo of the driver.)

Layug’s post has since been removed.

“I took down what I posted. I did not intend to subject anyone to anything harmful. I just wanted to send a message of calling for prayers. If there is anything the victims of the accident need right now, it is our prayers,” Layug shared after deleting the viral photos.

Several netizens found striking similarities of the coincidence with the horror movie “Final Destination.” In the film, one of the characters had a premonition of their deaths, which later tragically turned into reality due to a series of morbid accidents.

Through a viral Facebook post, a certain Den Castillo who claimed to have witnessed the incident accused Tagaytay police of giving slow response to the victims. According to Castillo, the victims could have been saved if the police timely and properly attended to the teenagers trapped inside the burning car.

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Witness reveals 'real story' behind Tagaytay car crash
On Tuesday, January 19, Tagaytay City police chief Supt. Ferdinand Quirante dismissed Castillo’s claims asserting that the barangay tanods arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the accident. Minutes later, the policemen arrived to help extinguish the fire from the car, which earlier hit a concrete barrier and several trees.

“Pinagtulungan ng pulis at barangay 'yung apoy. Gumamit sila ng apat na fire extinguishers to take the small fire out,” Quirante said.

(The policemen and barangay officials worked together to put out the fire. They used four fire extinguishers to take the small fire out.) -Mini/TheSummitExpress

Philippines, 2 other countries to host 2016 FIBA OQT

MANILA, Philippines - World basketball governing body FIBA named the Philippines as one of the host countries for the 2016 World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for men.

FIBA awards Philippines and 2 other countries hosting rights for Olympics Qualifiers.
Photo Credit: FIBA

The annoucement was made through FIBA social media accounts Tuesday night, January 19, 2016.

Philippines will join Italy and Serbia for the tournament hosting on July 4-10.

Philippines, Italy & Serbia will host the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (4-10 July)! #FIBAOQT #RoadToRio pic.twitter.com/pc7dCAH2nR

— FIBA (@FIBA) January 19, 2016

The 2016 OQT will qualify three teams to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The format will consist of 18 national teams divided into three tournaments of six teams each, with the winning team from each event qualifying for the Olympics.

The Philippine basketball team will be trying to earn its first appearance at the Olympic basketball tournament since 1972.

YES!! PHILIPPINES TO HOST FIBA OLYMPIC QUALIFYING IN JULY. LABAN PILIPINAS! PUSO!

— Manny V. Pangilinan (@iamMVP) January 19, 2016

Our national team Gilas Pilipinas will face five of these teams in Manila: Canada , Mexico , Puerto Rico , France, Serbia, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, Angola, Tunisia, Senegal, New Zealand, Iran, Japan, Latvia, Croatia and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, FIBA also announced that France will host the 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament from June 13-19.

Twitter is down for many users after technical fault

MANILA, Philippines - Popular social network Twitter went down as widely experienced by users on Tuesday night, January 19, 2016.

Visitors being greeted by an error page which says "Something is technically wrong."

"Thanks for noticing - we're going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon," Twitter added.

Some mobile users are also unable to read or post tweets to the network which currently has 300 million active users.

According to Down Detector, the problem began shortly after 08:27 GMT.

The issue would probably seem like an "unwelcome headache" for Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, according to consultants Frost & Sullivan.

There were also reported problems with Twitter's application program interface (API), which allows websites and apps to connect to Twitter, principal analyst Sheridan Nye told the BBC.

"The loss of the micro-blogging site's APIs multiplied the issue for all manner of developers, companies and organisations," he said.

Meanwhile, some users took to Facebook to complain.

Witness reveals 'real story' behind Tagaytay car crash

MANILA, Philippines- A witness of the Tagaytay car crash which took the lives of six minors has decided to shed light on the incident through a Facebook post.

In the early morning of January 17, Sunday, six passengers were killed when the car burst apparently into flames after it crashed on a concrete barrier and several trees along the highway in Tagaytay-Calamba Road in Barangay San Jose.

A report by GMA News revealed that the victims were graduating junior high school students aged 15 to 16 years old and did not have drivers’ licenses. They were identified as Kirby Bokingo, 16; John Paul Tena, 15;John Russel Garcia, 15; Rodalyn Bautista, 17; Jaymee Gubaton, 16; and Lauren Bren Calabines, 16.

Calabines reportedly drove theToyota Vios with plate number AHA-5287.

It is believed that the Calabines lost control of the vehicle and slammed into the concrete barrier and trees. Cavite police director Sr. Supt. Eliseo Cruz alleged that the passengers were trapped inside the burning car which later exploded.

According to Cavite police director Sr. Supt. Eliseo Cruz, as reported on the Philippine Star, elements of the Silang Police Community Precinct as well as officials of Baranggay San Jose and the Tagaytay rescue team immediately arrived at the scene and attempted to rescue the passengers. However, they failed to do so as the car exploded.

Contrary to the police report, Den Castillo, a netizen who apparently witnessed the incident, insists that no one has responded when she and her companions arrived at the accident scene.

Taken at the earlier stage of the accident, a proof that there was no immediate response.
PHOTO CREDIT: Facebook/Den Castillo

“May mga baranggay officials raw na RUMESPONDE. Pakiclarify po ang part na ito dahil wala naman yata kaming nakasamang baranggay officials unless yung Team Hose mula sa gilid ng Starbucks ay sila. Pero I doubt it, i think they were from Discovery Suites,” Cruz wrote.

(There were baranggay officials who allegedly responded. Please clarify this as we did not see any baranggay officials unless they were part of the Team Hose coming from the side of Starbucks. But I doubt it because I think they were from Discovery Suites.

Moreover, Castillo debunked the police’s statement that the car exploded.

“Hindi sumabog yung kotse, umapoy lang (kung sumabog yon, di ko na napost ito),” Cruz added.

(It did not explode, it just burned. If it exploded, then I would not be able to post this.)

A photo of the burning car. PHOTO CREDIT: Facebook/Den Castillo

Read her full story below.

REAL STORY BEHIND THE TAGAYTAY ACCIDENT THAT TOOK AWAY 6 LIVES LAST 17 JANUARY 2016 FROM THE WITNESSES WHO WERE THERE...
Posted by Den Castillo on Monday, January 18, 2016

-Mini/TheSummitExpress