PNP ‘Libreng Sakay’ driver, supervisor fired over Edsa busway collision
The driver of a police bus that collided with an Edsa Carousel public utility bus (PUB) has been relieved of his post along with his immediate supervisor pending an investigation of the accident that happened in Quezon City on April 17, a Philippine National Police official said on Monday.
“There are no sacred cows here. If you’re wrong …, explain yourself. If there’s negligence on your part, sorry, you have to explain,” PNP Logistics Support Service director Brig. Gen. Noel Vallo said in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
At another briefing earlier in the day, National Police Commission (Napolcom) Commissioner Rafael Calinisan identified the police bus driver as Chief Master Sgt. Jenifer Bredico. His immediate supervisor was not named.
The collision between the two vehicles occurred near the Main Avenue station for the Edsa busway on April 17, the last day of a transport strike. Bredico was driving a police bus as part of the PNP’s “Libreng Sakay” (free ride) program.
Footage taken by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera showed the PNP bus swerving across several lanes before entering the Edsa busway located on the leftmost side, where it collided with the PUB driven by Jessie Soledad.
Different assignment
Both bus drivers were at the Napolcom briefing. Defending himself, Bredico said he entered the exclusive bus lane to pick up passengers. But Vallo, noted that the police driver had been assigned to Commonwealth Avenue.
Soledad, on the other hand, accused Bredico of demanding that he hand over his driver’s license. “I told him I wouldn’t give him my license until an enforcer arrives,” the PUB driver said.
Soledad added that after he and Bredico were brought to the Quezon City Police District’s (QCPD) Traffic Enforcement Unit outpost on Katipunan Avenue to be investigated, the police officer asked that the broken windshield of the police bus be charged to him.
“Bredico was asking me to pay for the damage to his windshield … I told him, ‘Let’s look at the footage taken by the CCTV camera of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to see who is at fault,’” the PUB driver said.
Both Vallo and Calinisan acknowledged that Bredico had overstepped his authority by demanding Soledad’s driving license.
Feeling of authority
“If our police-driver had just talked with the bus driver and said, ‘Partner, we’ve had an accident. It couldn’t be avoided. I’m sorry. Let me just call the proper policeman, which is the Traffic Sector of the QCPD to investigate the traffic accident,” Vallo said.
“It could have ended there. But there’s an instinct that comes with being in uniform. You feel you are in authority. Your instinct is to ask for the driver’s license. That’s the problem,” he added.
Asked to react to Bredico’s explanation that he was only carrying out his duty under the PNP’s Libreng Sakay program, Calinisan called the excuse “flimsy.”
“Offering free rides doesn’t give you the license to swerve across four lanes, intimidate a bus driver and take his license,” the Napolcom director said.
“It’s also not an excuse to charge to the bus driver the damage to the PNP coaster because you are reason for why there was a collision in the first place,” Calinisan told reporters.
