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[SIZE=2]Licensed To Kill[/SIZE]
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[SIZE=2]By Junep Ocampo[/SIZE][SIZE=2]
(The Philippine Star) Updated November 04, 2009 12:00 AM[/SIZE]
MANILA, Philippines - Arman dela Cruz (not his real name) just passed his actual driving examination in a small bus company. His operator told him that he can already start the following Monday. Excited about his new work, Arman couldn’t help but look forward to a promising life as bus driver.
Before leaving the employer’s tiny office, however, Arman was reminded by his new boss about a “secret”.
“Don’t tell anybody that I told you this,” the bus owner said in a hushed tone.
Arman listened intently, his mind hanging on his employer’s next words.
“If you figure in an accident, and I truly hope you don’t,” the bus owner said, knocking on his wooden desk with pictures of his loved ones under a clear plastic cover. “I did not tell you this, but if you must choose between a half-dead victim and a dead one, it is easier to deal with the latter.”
Arman, a former family driver, had heard similar advice once in a conversation with an elderly driver. But he wasn’t sure what it truly meant.
“Do you mean the company would rather have a dead victim than a victim who is alive yet injured?” Arman asked, just to confirm that he understood the instruction well.
The bus owner nodded and stared at the stack of paper on the left side of his desk.
“If the victim is alive and in the hospital, the bills never end. If the victim is dead, then we could already settle with the family and just pay them off.”
Arman was still having goosebumps as he replayed the conversation in his head on his way out of the bus terminal. He was wondering if his decision to be a bus driver – a job that would pay him at least P600 a day in commissions for a 10-hour work – was the right choice.
“Industry secret”
For 16 years, Dante Lantin served as chairman of the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the agency in charge of regulating public utility vehicles such as buses. While having lunch at a hotel in Pasay City where he attended a road safety conference, he talked to this writer on the issue of some bus drivers being “licensed to kill”.
He acknowledged the story of Arman as the Philippine bus industry’s “dirty secret”.
“No bus owner would admit it,” he said. “But if you would look closely, that’s what’s happening. It makes more economic sense to have a dead victim than a victim who is half dead yet requires expensive medical treatment.”
Lantin recalled hearing stories in the 80s of drivers intentionally backing up to run over their victims after an accident to make sure they were dead. However, the lack of witnesses and the inability of the victims’ families to pursue the case in court had led to amicable settlements.
The present LTFRB chairman, Alberto Suansing, also acknowledged those stories. In a telephone interview, he said, “Before, I refused to believe those stories. But it seems they are true.”