The driver of a taxi who was said to have cursed and harrass a female passenger if she did not pay Php2,000 was fined Php1,000 while the operator of the taxi was fined Php5,000 by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).
The driver is Bebiano Dapal, Jr. while his employer is CATZ Taxi operator Prelyn Intervencion. They apologized to the female passenger during a hearing at the regional office of the LTFRB last Tuesday January 12.
“Ma’am, pasayloa jud ko. Karon pa jud ko kasugat ani. Wala ko’y ikabayad sab ana kay wala na man koy trabaho (Ma’am, forgive me. I’ve been penalized only now. I can’t pay because I don’t have a job),” a tearful Dapal told the female passenger.
Dapal was suspended by the operator a few days after the incident. He was penalized under Joint Administrative Order 2014-01 issued by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).
He was found guilty of overcharging and being discourteous and arrogant toward his passenger.
Each of these three violations carried a fine of P5,000 each for the operator and P1,000 for the driver, or a total of P18,000.
But LTFRB-7 legal officer Edwin Antepuesto said both parties agreed to reduce the fines to P5,000 for Intervencion and P1,000 for Dapal.
The woman passenger who is 26 years old said that she was willing to forgive Dapal for what he did but she felt insulted after Dapal cursed her mother.
Photos of Dapal’s ID card and of his taxi unit were posted by the female passenger on her Facebook account along with her story of the incident.
Her Facebook post had 1,000 shares in a span of 24 hours.
She borded Dapal’s taxi with her mother, one-year-old nephew and 13-year old cousin to attend a Mass at the Birhen sa Regla Church in Lapu-Lapu City when the incident occurred last Jan. 7.
She said the heat and traffic congestion caused her one-year-old nephew, who sat in the backseat, to throw up on the floor.
"I wiped off his vomit because we had three extra towels. I heard the driver say tsk, tsk but I continued to wipe even with the traffic,” she told Cebu Daily News.
They stopped across the University of Cebu-Lapu Lapu and Mandaue Campus (UCLM) to buy ethyl alcohol and towels.
The woman said she was worried about her mother who got off the taxi because the warm weather may have raised her blood pressure. She said this irked Dapalwho allegedly cursed her mother.
“He was inconsiderate. It was just an accident that my nephew vomited. It was unexpected but he was rude and arrogant to us,” she said.
