Cab driver accused of ‘laglag bala’ summoned by LTFRB

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has started looking into a post circulating on social networking site Facebook accusing a taxi driver of planting a bullet in the bag of an airport-bound seaman.

In a post on its official Twitter account LTFRB_Chairman, the LTFRB announced that it would summon the driver of a Vigil taxi with plate number UVK-190 recently implicated in the Oct. 30 post of a certain Julius Niel Habana.

Habana, in his post, said that on Oct. 29, his fellow seaman was in the cab, on his way to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), when he noticed that the driver had placed something in his bag.

Habana advised his friend over SMS to proceed instead to his boardhouse nearby. Upon his friend’s arrival, they checked his bag to discover a .38-caliber bullet inside.

Habana said he told the driver off, but the driver only acted arrogantly (“matapang.”)

“To avoid further trouble, because my friend had an international flight to catch, I just transferred him to another taxi, and I was the one who reported to the police and the LTFRB,” Habana said, in Filipino.

“To OFWs, please be careful, because even in the taxi, the scamming already happens. Don’t let the driver carry your bag out of your sightline,” Habana warned.

In an interview over phone, LTFRB chair Winston Ginez said the board launched an automatic investigation into the accusations in the post, and has issued a “show-cause” order to the taxi operator and driver requiring them to appear before the board on Wednesday.

Ginez said the driver has not been identified, and the specific case to be filed against him has not been determined. “It is hard to prejudge. It is an allegation. We have to secure the driver’s side of the story,” Ginez said.  SFM