Cab grounded over chemical spray

MANILA, Philippines - The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has suspended for 30 days the franchise of the operators of a taxicab whose female passengers are drugged with a chemical that its driver sprays on the air-conditioning system.

During a hearing yesterday, LTFRB chairman Winston Ginez told the operators of a taxicab with license plate UVW-243 to submit to the agency the personal information of cabbie Ronald Allan Kelly.

Ginez said they would forward the information to the Quezon City Police District for possible filing of chargesagainst Kelly.

He gave the taxi operators, sisters Sabeth Libiran and Elena Enciso, 10 days to submit their response to the complaint of a woman who was allegedly drugged with a chemical supposedly sprayed by Kelly.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she hailed the “Dadz” taxi along Tomas Morato, Quezon City at around 2 p.m. on Oct. 19.

Inside the cab, the driver turned the air-conditioning system up. The complainant then heard him spray something twice. It smelled of vanilla, she recalled.

Kelly rolled down the cab’s window and before long, the complainant started feeling dizzy and weak.

She started looking for the license plate of the vehicle and managed to text a friend. She then demanded that the driver to stop and drop her off a nearby gas station.

She gave the cabbie P100 and got out of the taxi.

After a few days, she said she received threats from some people posing as relatives of the cabbie when she posted the incident on Facebook and reported it to the police.

LTFRB executive director Roberto Cabrera said they would determine possible sanctions on Kelly.

Ginez said another woman had posted a similar story on Facebook involving the same taxicab.

The operators of the taxi said they had grounded the driver since the incident circulated on the Internet.

The cabbie was not present during yesterday’s hearing but he spoke to reporters using his operator’s phone.

He said what he sprayed was just the detergent “Downy” to remove the stench of the vehicle’s carpet.

He added that he did not intend to do any harm to his female passengers.