LTFRB cancels franchises of Dimple Star for fatal road crashes

THE LAND Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has revoked the franchises of Dimple Star Transport Corp. following multiple road accidents involving its provincial buses that resulted to deaths and injuries. In a Dec. 3 decision, the LTFRB ordered the cancelation of the 11 franchises of the bus company, which covered its entire fleet of 118 units. “[T]his Board finds Mr. (Hilbert S.) Napat/Dimple Star to have repeatedly and deliberately violated or willfully and contumaciously refused to comply with the terms and conditions (in) his/its CPC (Certificate of Public Convenience),” it read. Dimple Star has been ordered to surrender to the LTFRB its plates, which will be destructed before being turned over to the Land Transportation Office. In a joint statement with the Department of Transportation (DoTr), the LTFRB said Dimple Star has recorded eight road crashes since 2011, which resulted to the death of 25 individuals and injury of 134. “We are cancelling the franchise of the entire fleet of Dimple Star because of repetitive recklessness in their transport service. One death is already one too many,” LTFRB Chairman Martin B. Delgra III said in the statement. In March, President Rodrigo R. Duterte ordered the arrest of the operator of Dimple Star following a road crash in Occidental Mindoro, where 19 passengers died and 21 others injured. The LTFRB Board said in its decision the casualties from the bus operator’s road accidents show Dimple Star’s failure to honor its franchise. “When a CPC is granted, the justification in the decision is that the proposed service shall promote public interest and convenience and not the private interest of the operator/grantee,” it said. —