Dimple Star to LTFRB: Lift preventive suspension over Mindoro mishap

The wreckage of the Dimple Star bus that figured in a crash that left 19 people dead and 21 others wounded in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro last March 20, 2018. President Rodrigo Duterte visited the accident site on March 23. (Photo by ROBINSON NIÑAL JR. / Presidential Photographers Division)

Dimple Star Transportation company on Wednesday maintained that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) should lift the preventive suspension order imposed on them.

Dimple Star bus company legal counsel Cesar Cainglet said they will file a motion for reconsideration as they maintained that the owner of the bus involved in the road mishap last March was under the name of Hilbert Napat.

“The one that was involved in the accident was the one owned and operated by Hilbert Napat,” Cainglet said during a hearing held in the office of LTFRB.

According to the legal counsel, there were two franchises under the Dimple Star Transport — Dimple Star Transport Incorporation and the one handled by Napat.

Cainglet explained that Napat was a single proprietor while the Dimple Star company was a corporation.

“Nakiusap kami na sana hindi nasama (yung Dimple Star Tranport Incorporation) dahil dalawa naman iyon eh, magkaiba naman ang may ari eh,” Cainglet told reporters briefly after the hearing.

The LTFRB gave the company 20 days to file its petition paper before submitting the case for resolution.

In March, a bus unit of Dimple Star Company got involved into a road mishap Occidental, Mindoro.

The bus was bound to Manila but crashed into a 15-meter deep ravine and killed 19 individuals and injured at least 20.   /muf

READ: 19 dead, 21 hurt in Occidental Mindoro bus crash