Luxury car owner summoned for using EDSA bus lane

FILE: Public utility buses (PUBs) plying the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) busway await passengers at the Edsa Busway in Caloocan City. (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA – The owner of a red Ferrari that traversed the EDSA bus lane recently has been issued a show cause order by the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

Assistant Secretary Teofilo Guadiz III, LTO chief, emphasized in a statement on Friday that the agency does not and will not tolerate traffic rule violators, regardless of their status.

The EDSA bus lane is for the exclusive use of public utility buses (PUBs), ambulances, and marked government vehicles in cases of emergency.

The sports car owner and the assigned driver at the time of the incident are foreign nationals, according to the LTO.

They must appear at the Intelligence and Investigation Division (IID) office of the LTO Central Office on East Avenue in Quezon City on Monday at 10 a.m.

The assigned driver was directed to submit a written comment or explanation why no administrative charge shall be meted out for disregarding traffic sign and why the license should not be suspended or revoked for being an improper person to operate a motor vehicle as per Republic Act 4136, the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.

Failure of the respondents to submit the documentation required will be deemed by the IID and the LTO as a waiver of their rights to be heard and heir case will be decided based on existing evidence.

“We will not tolerate this kind of intrusion into road lanes that were assigned for the exclusive use of specific types of vehicles during the state of a national health emergency, which still exists,” Guadiz said.

The LTO also issued a show cause order on Monday to a sports utility vehicle driver who hit a traffic enforcer and used blinkers and a siren when it was flagged down at the EDSA busway on Oct. 14.

The motorist and the vehicle owner were ordered to appear before the IID on Wednesday but they asked for a postponement in order to prepare their replies, LTO Strategic Communications Office chief Divine Reyes told the Philippine News Agency on Friday.