MANILA: A Christmas Day head-on collision between a passenger bus and a jeepney (minibus) along the national highway in La Union province in Northern Luzon killed at least 20 people including a five-month-old infant, police reported on Monday.

Chief Inspector Roy Villanueva, the police chief, said the jeepney passengers were on their way to attend a Christmas Day mass at a famous pilgrimage site in the neighboring Pangasinan province also in Northern Luzon when the tragedy occurred.

“Twenty are confirmed dead (including the five-month-old infant),” Villanueva said, adding the collision occurred along the national highway in the town of Agoo, La Union at dawn on Christmas Day.

Based on initial investigation, Villanueva said the accident involved a bus carrying passengers bound for the capital city of Laoag in Ilocos Norte in Northern Luzon to attend the traditional Christmas Day reunion with their families.

On the other hand, the jeepney passengers were travelling south towards a popular pilgrimage site among Filipino Catholics dedicated to Mary, the mother of Christ, in the town of Manaoag, Pangasinan.

According to Villanueva, the jeepney driver appeared to have crossed the lane until it collided head-on with the passenger bus that was coming from the opposite direction.

In a separate but related development, eight commuters rushing home to spend Christmas Eve with their families died when the passenger jeepney they were riding plunged into a cliff in North Cotabato province in troubled Mindanao.

Chief Inspector Andres Sumugat, the police chief, said the tragedy occurred on Sunday afternoon along the highway in the town of President Roxas, with the jeepney bound for the town of Arakan, both in North Cotabato.

The jeepney driver who survived, Sumugat said, claimed that his vehicle developed a brake problem while going downhill in President Roxas, turned turtle several times until it plunged into a cliff and landed on a palm oil plantation.

Eight of the passengers died on the spot while 23 other were injured, some of them declared in critical condition by attending physicians in a hospital, Sumugat added.