LTFRB lifts suspension of bus firm in Chit Estella death

The owner of the bus unit linked to the death of journalist Chit Estella-Simbulan can now field other units on the road, after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) lifted the suspension of the firm's franchise. LTFRB board member Manuel Iway said the agency decided to lift the one-month suspension order against the Universal Guiding Star Bus because the firm has already "complied with the requirements" set under the suspension order. Iway added that the company has already sent its drivers to a driving and traffic seminar, and that it earlier surrendered all the plate numbers of its 28 bus units. Iway, however, clarified that all the units of the bus firm can now ply the roads except the one driven by Daniel Espinosa – believed to be the bus that rammed the taxi where Simbulan was in. The firm's owner earlier filed an urgent ex-parte supplemental omnibus motion with the LTFRB to lift the preventive suspension. The company also asked the agency to subpoena the operator of the Nova Bus Line, another bus embroiled in the fatal road crash on May 13. Apart from Espinosa, also charged in connection with Simbulan's death was taxi driver Vito Jagunos, who drove for Simbulan, and Nova Bus driver Victor Ancheta of the Nova Auto Transport. Simbulan was killed when the taxi she was riding was reportedly rammed by the bus being driven by Espinosa on Commonwealth Avenue, near the University of the Philippines-Ayala Techno Hub. Espinosa's legal counsel Salvador Panelo, however, argued that another bus rammed the taxi before Espinosa's vehicle. The lawyer said the green and yellow paint marks left on the taxi showed that it was not Espinosa's orange bus that hit the cab first. Espinosa, who went into hiding for several days in Davao City before surrendering to authorities, blamed two Nova buses that were allegedly racing against each other when the road mishap happened. — LBG/KBK, GMA News