TV host won't pay P78 fare; mauls taxi driver

MANILA, Philippines - A TV show host, who said he had no money to pay the P78.50 fare, mauled a taxi driver Wednesday morning in front of a Mandaluyong condominium.

Cabbie Edward Villanueva, 49, of World Taxi, said Daniel Marsh, one of the hosts of “Juan Direction,” a weekly documentary-style reality show, mauled him and damaged his cab when he insisted that the host pay the P78.50 fare reflected in the taximeter.

VERA Files tried to get Marsh side by text and call, but he did not reply.

Villanueva said Marsh got into his cab a little past 5 a.m. outside the Prive Luxury Club at The Fort in Taguig and directed him to go to the Tivoli Garden Residences in Mandaluyong.

On their way to Tivoli, the driver said Marsh, who was tipsy, was complaining that he lost his wallet at the club.

“I lost my wallet, my cash, my ATM, everything,” Villanueva quoted the Irish-Filipino TV host as saying.

Upon arriving at Tivoli, Marsh just stepped out of the cab and declared “I’m free,” the driver said.

The driver said he called out, “No, Sir.”

Marsh, the driver said, insisted, “I’m free. I’m not joking.”

The driver said Marsh kicked his cab when he insisted on being paid.

Villanueva said he got out of the car and Marsh mauled him. “He hurt me with a head butt,” he said.

The driver said before Marsh went up, he threw him a P100 bill at him.

An eyewitness, who asked not to be named, related what she saw: “A taxi stopped in front of Heliconia Tower. I heard loud bangings and saw a foreign-looking young man, cursing, kicking, banging the taxi he alighted from. When the driver stepped out of the car, he punched him, cursed, shouting invectives, ‘You’re trying to rip me off. Who are you? You're nothing, you don't know me, don't fuck with me!’”

The eyewitness further said: “(The) poor driver was beaten and his taxi's window was broken. I told the security guards to call the police. The foreign-looking guy happens to be a resident of Heliconia 806, and a member of Juan Direction, according to the guard. He went up to his unit, with the poor driver left below. After 10 minutes or more the barangay police arrived, but the Tivoli guards cannot make its tenant go down and face the authorities.”

“All those things happened for at least 10 to 15 minutes, with school children picked up by their service, witnessed and heard the violence and the cursing. Tivoli guards cannot control its tenant. In fact, one guard said, this young man is so abusive that he kicks on the elevator, or punches the wall, whenever he is drunk, but ‘mabait’ naman daw pag di nakainom (he’s ‘nice’ when he’s sober).”

Villanueva said he has reported the incident to Barangay Hulo in Mandaluyong. He has gone to a barangay clinic and the health workers there advised him to subject his injured nose to an X-ray procedure.

He said Marsh also has not talked with him. As of press time, Villanueva was at TV5 trying to seek help from TV executives.