Arrest warrants for bus drivers involved in journalist Chit Estella’s death

MANILA, Philippines—A Quezon City court has issued arrest warrants for two bus drivers involved in the May 2011 fatal car crash which killed veteran journalist and professor Chit Estella.

Judge Ralph Lee of Regional Trial Court Branch 83 recently ordered the arrest of Daniel Espinosa of Universal Guiding Star Busline and Victor Ancheta of Nova Bus.

In an arrest warrant dated August 8, the court directed law enforcers to nab the two drivers for the charge of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property with homicide for Estella’s death.

The court set the bail amount for the charge at P30,000 for each of the accused.

Lee ordered the arrest of the two bus drivers after agreeing with the findings of the Quezon City prosecutors’ office that there is probable cause to justify the issuance of the warrants.

Assistant city prosecutor Ronald Torrijos filed charges of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property with homicide against the two for their liability in Estella’s death.

Estella (Lourdes Estella-Simbulan in real life) died on May 13 while riding a taxi on her way to a friends’ gathering at the U.P. Ayala Land Technohub along Commonwealth Ave.

Ancheta is the driver of the speeding Nova bus which first sideswiped the taxi the journalist was riding in, while Espinosa’s bus rammed the taxi a few seconds after Ancheta hit it.

Estella died of fatal head injuries after being severely pinned in the backseat of the taxi driven by Vito Jagunos.

The charge was aggravated as both drivers ran away after the mishap and failed to report the accident to police authorities for proper investigation.

“That, immediately after the collision, both accused ran away and failed to lend on the spot to the injured victim such help as maybe in their hands, nor did they report the incident to the proper authorities outright for investigation; thus the attendant circumstance of ‘failure to lend help to one’s victim’ under the last paragraph of Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code was present.”

The criminal information was filed on July 18 before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, which was eventually raffled off to Branch 83 that was presided over by Lee.

Both drivers had denied any liability in the mishap. Espinosa claimed that he only hit the taxi as the Nova bus hit it first and forced the taxi to careen into his path.

In his defense, Ancheta denied hitting the taxi at all and that he did not feel anything that would indicate that he hit the vehicle first.

But Torrijos, in his 13-page resolution, ruled that there was probable cause to file the charges against the two bus drivers.

“Thus, the combined or concurrent recklessness of Espinosa and Ancheta was the direct cause of the deceased and property damages to the taxi being driven by Jagunos. Espinosa’s recklessness is as much the proximate cause of the mishap as that of Ancheta,” he pointed out.

The assistant city prosecutor however dismissed the reckless imprudence resulting in homicide raps against Jagunos for insufficiency of evidence.

The court has not yet set any date for the accused’s arraignment pending their arrest or posting of the bail amount.