QCPD to reinvestigate journalist’s death

MANILA, Philippines—The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) has ordered a reinvestigation of the bus-taxi collision that killed journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella-Simbulan after the bus driver surfaced and told probers his own version of the accident.

The QCPD director, Chief Superintendent George Regis, said the renewed probe would focus on the statements made by Daniel Espinosa and his lawyer, Salvador Panelo, in a press conference on Saturday.

Earlier, the police filed charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and damage to property and abandonment of one’s victim with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office against the driver of Universal Guiding Star bus.

Simbulan was killed when Espinosa’s bus crashed into the rear of the taxi cab she was riding in on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on May 13.

Espinosa escaped and went into hiding until his surrender to Davao City authorities six days later.

“I want concrete evidence to ferret out the truth and maybe to reinforce the traffic investigator’s initial findings,” Regis said.

Panelo earlier told reporters that based on what Espinosa had told him, two Nova Bus Transport buses were racing against each other when one of them hit Simbulan’s taxi cab.

Espinosa claimed that the impact sent the cab spinning out of control and he crashed into its rear because he failed to see it in time since the two buses were blocking his view of the road.

Panelo had demanded that the police include the two Nova buses in its investigation. He said he would submit his client’s affidavit to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and ask it to include it in its probe.

He also said that his client was a “victim of circumstance” and that the cause of Simbulan’s death was the “negligence” displayed by the drivers of the taxi cab and the two other buses.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino denied that he was protecting the owner of Nova Bus Transport.

He issued the statement in response to the statements of Espinosa and Panelo that the MMDA appeared to be coddling the bus firm because of the absence of closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) footage that could have shed light on how the accident happened.

According to Tolentino, the two CCTV cameras near Ayala Technohub where the accident occurred were damaged by Tropical Storm “Bebeng.”

The cameras were replaced on May 15 but Tolentino said that even if these had been working on the day of the accident, they could not have captured it due to a tree that was blocking their view.—With Penelope P. Endozo