This unit of the GV Florida Transport Inc fell off a ravine on the morning of Feb. 7, 2014, landing at a small farm in Barangay (village) Talubin, Bontoc town in Mt. Province. The bus came from Manila. The accident killed 14 people, including 2 foreigners and comedian Arvin “Tado” Jimenez whose remains were driven back to Manila on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014. RICHARD BALONGLONG/Inquirer Northern Luzon
MANILA, Philippines—The Court of Appeals has lifted the six-month suspension of G.V. Florida Transport Inc. which the government imposed following the accident in February that killed 15 people, including the comedian Arvin “Tado” Jimenez.
The court’s 14th Division, in a decision dated June 26, said the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) committed grave abuse of discretion when it canceled the 28 certificates of public convenience (CPCs) covering the firm’s 186 buses “without any factual and legal bases in the absolute absence of a violation or wrong committed.”
“It defies logic as to why the LTFRB found no ’violations or willful and contumacious refusal to comply with the rules or regulations of the LTFRB and the provisions of the Public Service Law’ with respect to the 28 CPCs of Florida and yet wielded the penalty of suspension,” the appellate court said in the 18-page decision written by Justice Franchito Diamante.
The other division members, Justices Celia Librea-Leagogo and Melchor Sadang, concurred in the ruling.
According to the justices, it was “at once clearly and glaringly apparent that Florida was penalized for a non-existing violation,” adding that the LTFRB itself found Florida to have “substantially complied” with the conditions that the agency imposed under its preventive suspension order.
Among these conditions were the inspection and roadworthiness determination of all Florida buses; road safety seminar and compulsory drug-testing for its drivers and conductors, and the submission of certificates of registration, latest land transportation official receipts of all its units and the names of their respective drivers and conductors.
The court said that suspending the 186 buses was “not only grossly disproportionate but should not have been imposed at all in the absolute absence of a violation or wrong committed.”
“Since substantial evidence to support the imposition of the penalty of suspension against Florida’s 28 CPCs is patently wanting, such order is unarguably a gross and blatant violation of administrative due process,” the justices said.
10 buses’ cancellation affirmed
The court, however, affirmed the cancellation of the CPC covering the 10 other Florida buses that were still under the name of Norberto M. Cue Sr. Among the 10 buses was the one that figured in the accident on Feb. 7 in Talubin, Mountain Province, that killed Jimenez.
The court said that Florida failed to file the required application for approval of sale and transfer of the CPC that it had bought from Cue and that the LTFRB’s cancellation of the CPC was “proper” and “had legal basis.”
“We find that the LTFRB correctly applied Sections 20 and 18 of the Public Service Law which respectively prohibits the sale by any public service or its owner, lessee or operator of its property, franchises, certificates, privileges or rights, or any part thereof, without the prior approval and authorization of the LTFRB and the engagement in any public service business without having first secured from the LTFRB a CPC,” the justices ruled.
The Florida buses were suspended for more than three months.
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