MikeLigalig.com

Six Filipinos died Sunday morning in the collision of a minibus and a truck in Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture (province) in Japan, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed.

The DFA did not release their names but their families in the Philippines have been informed of the tragic incident even as arrangements for the repatriation of the remains are underway and assistance to those in hospital continue.

Quoting police sources, Consul-General Maria Lourdes Ramiro-Lopez said the Filipinos were among 27 passengers and the driver of the van that collided with a truck at an intersection. Five died on impact while the sixth fatality died on the way to hospital.

Twenty-two others in the bus and its driver were injured, ten seriously, and are being treated in a hospital. The DFA did not indicate if those injured were also Filipinos.

The truck driver, identified as Takao Moriwaki, 45, is in police custody. It is not clear if there were others in the truck.

The passengers were on a bus reportedly owned by a temporary staffing agency and were heading towards a factory that manufactures liquid crystal panels. The DFA did not categorically state if the Filipinos were on their way to work in the factory and whether or not they were properly documented.

Mie Prefecture is in the Kansai area of Japan, facing the Pacific Ocean, and is under the consular jurisdiction of the Philippine consulate-general in Osaka City. (PNA)

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