Olongapo City - Victory bus for the city

Mr. Antonio "Pocholo" Galian , General Manager of Victory Liner donated one Victory Bus for the city during the flag raising ceremony on September 19, 2011.

Victory Liner inaugurates new Pasay Terminal

Victory Liner recently unveiled an improved bus terminal in Pasay as part of its service commitment to provide its passengers with enhanced amenities and greater travel convenience. Located along EDSA in Pasay City near SM Mall of Asia, the new Victory Liner bus terminal will offer a more organized ticketing and dispatcher booth, a relaxing passenger waiting area with better ventilation, lighting as well as fully covered bus bays, ATM machines, clean rest rooms and organized kiosks dedicated to food and drinks.

Right at the entrance, the new terminal will also have an electronic billboard flashing the schedule of bus arrivals. Deluxe bus passengers, meanwhile, will get to enjoy a waiting area with internet and coffee stations. The terminal’s entry and exit points will also be separated to facilitate for a smoother traffic flow into the terminal and out to EDSA.

Bus routes at the Victory Liner Pasay terminal include Baguio, Dagupan, Olongapo, Tuguegarao, Zambales, and Apalit/Guagua. For more information on Victory Liner trip schedules, visit www.victoryliner.com.

Gunmen torch 5 Victory buses, wound 7

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Six policemen and a civilian were wounded shortly after midnight yesterday when suspected New People’s Army (NPA) rebels attacked the Victory Liner Bus Terminal on Avenida Street, Poblacion, here, torching five buses and shooting it out patrolling police.

Superintendent Harris Fama, local police chief, said the heavily-armed men engaged police on patrol around 12:40 a.m., wounding six of eight policemen in action.

Fama identified the wounded cops as PO3 Daniel Sison, PO3 Alex de Guzman, PO2 Reynaldo Domalanta, PO1 Herman Camba, PO1 Armeno Abarabar and PO1 Ramon Valencerina.

"Our personnel also managed to hit several armed men as evidenced in information coming from civilians who witness the withdrawal of the suspects," he said, adding that the wounded were out of danger.

As the gunmen made their getaway aboard two white vans, police noticed that a Victory Liner bus had been burning.

Bus conductor Villamor Mu-yanos of Zambales was caught sleeping in the bus when it was torched and sustained third-degree burns, said Fama.

A few minutes later, four other buses were already engulfed by fire, leaving nothing minutes later but carcasses.

While the communist rebels surfaced as the main suspects in the incident, probers are eyeing other angles as motive in the attack, such as labor dispute which emerged as the motive in the burning of buses in Cubao, Quezon City a few months ago.

Fama said checkpoints and chokepoints have already been established in Pangasinan and nearby provinces as augmenting police and military combatants have been called in to join in hot pursuit operations. By LIEZLE BASA • AARON RECUENCO - TEMPO

Victory Liner, Inc.: Staying on top through innovation

THE COUNTRY’S biggest bus company — also one of its oldest — is trying to stay on top of the game by finding new ways to satisfy its clients, while having to deal with global market forces never before experienced.

"We will never stop innovating and finding new ways to satisfy our customers. We can never be lax as far as bus maintenance and training is concerned," said Marivic H. del Pilar, treasury and marketing manager of Victory Liner.

She said the bus firm is capitalizing on strong tourism growth particularly in Northern Luzon, even as volatile fuel prices and government policies force them to adapt to the times.

The bus company formed by Jose I. Hernandez, Sr. in 1945 — a time when the country was still reeling from the wreckage of World War II and there was no transportation system to speak of — continues to expand and innovate.

"We differentiate ourselves in terms of service, in having the most number of buses, most number of routes and most number of dispatches in a day to any one route," Ms. del Pilar said in an interview. Today, she said, a number of other bus companies have cropped up, Victory Liner’s service sets it apart, she pointed out.

A prewar mechanic, Mr. Hernandez collected spare parts from abandoned US military vehicles to build a delivery truck for his family’s trading business of fish sauce, rice, corn, vegetables and homemade laundry soap.

He was surprised to discover that the delivery truck he had ordered from a Chinese acquaintance looked more like a bus with rows of benches, and with its right side open.

Reluctantly and prevailed upon by his wife, Mr. Hernandez accepted the vehicle and used it instead as a public utility vehicle.

Competing against 12 other bus companies, Victory Liner’s first bus started serving the Manila-Olongapo route on Oct. 15, 1945 with Mr. Hernandez as the driver and his brother-in-law Leonardo D. Trinidad as his conductor. The first terminal was located at the corner of Azcarraga St., which is now Claro M. Recto Ave., and Juan Luna St. in Divisoria, Manila.

Speaking of innovation, Mr. Hernandez brought the country’s first air-conditioned bus from Japan in the 1960s. He also initiated the conversion of front engine buses and the use of steel-bodied buses.

In the 1970s, Victory Liner also provided the riding public with air-conditioned provincial bus service, which was unique at that time.

In the 1980s, the company introduced automatic transmission buses from GM-Allison and started using TVs and video facilities. At that time, it embarked on a training program for its drivers, conductors and mechanics on road safety, customer service and bus maintenance. This is a practice it maintains up to this day.

Victory Liner has the biggest fleet of buses at 860. Recently, it launched its advanced seat reservation system, which allows one to reserve a seat via phone a month before the trip. Other innovations include the use of deluxe buses complete with a bus attendant and toilet.

Ms. del Pilar said Victory Liner considers its people its greatest asset. "What for are nice, brand new buses without competent drivers, without dedicated managers and employees? Take care of your employees. They can make or break the company," she said.

She said the bus business is a labor intensive business, and the management and its employees have to work together to attain their goals. "When we take care of our employees, they in turn want to take care of our customers. It’s a cycle of happy people wanting to give happiness to other people. Angry people cannot give love to other people," she said as a matter of fact.

Through the years, Ms. del Pilar said, Victory Liner has managed to come out of different type of crises, from natural calamities such as the Baguio earthquake and eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the early 1990s, the currency crisis in 1997, and recently, rising fuel prices.

She said the company had done so through sheer perseverance and focus. "We do not get disheartened. We do not decide to stop growing. We think beyond what is happening and focus on being the best," she added. — RAMR

NPA, two ex-workers tagged in Victory bus torching

Two former employees of Victory Liner and the communist New People’s Army (NPA) are at the center of a police investigation of a recent attack on the bus firm’s garage in Quezon City.

Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District, said the two dismissed employees filed their cases only last February and March and could have the motive for last Wednesday’s attack.

However, a senior police officer involved in the investigation said they are looking into the possibility that communist rebels infiltrated the bus firm’s labor union and could have supported the attack.

He said dismissed employees are holding pickets at the Victory Liner terminal in Tarlac, a reported stronghold of NPA guerrillas.

He said it is a given that most, if not all, left-leaning labor groups give money to the NPA in exchange for protecting their members.

The senior police officer said that even if dismissed workers are linked to the attack, they could not have done it by themselves. He noted that 10 armed men, in two vehicles, barged into the Victory Liner garage before midnight Wednesday and disarmed the lone security guard on duty.

Four of the suspects ordered the guard and several bus personnel to remove their personal possessions from the buses, and the rest of the armed men set the vehicles on fire using two pails of paint thinner.

According to Mabanag, the labor cases filed by the two former workers earlier this year are preceded only by a case that was filed way back in 2006.

"So we’re now asking the NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission) to provide us a copy of the said case for us to know the complaints of these two (former) employees," Mabanag told The STAR in an interview.

These two cases are among the eight pending labor cases filed against the management, which Mabanag earlier said was the "closest link" to the attack. He does not believe the assault could be the handiwork of communist rebels.

While refusing to divulge the identities of the two former employees, Mabanag said they are residents of Malabon and are natives of Iba and Botolan towns in Zambales.

Coincidentally, a similar attack was recorded in Zambales in early 2000 involving another Victory Liner bus.

Citing information from Zambales provincial police director Senior Superintendent Roland Felix, a bus bound for Botolan was blocked by armed men, who ordered the passengers to get off the bus before setting the vehicle on fire.

"So we’re looking into these previous cases, because if these former employees really have grievances against the company, the percentage (of them getting back at the management) is high... They’re angry and that is manifested in these actions," Mabanag noted.

"But the company doesn’t seem to be bothered by it because they always say the affected buses are covered by insurance claims," he added.

Mabanag also dismissed insinuations that Wednesday night’s attack could only be aimed at collecting insurance claims for the firm’s old buses.

He said if that were the case, the attackers should have focused only on old buses and not tried to damage the other buses parked in the garage.

Mabanag noted that during the attack last Wednesday, the attackers poured paint thinner leading to the newer buses, thinking these would also be totally burned after an old bus was set on fire.

Authorities, however, soon arrived and put out the fire a few minutes later. By JAIME LAUDE and REINIR PADUA - The Philippine Star

Insurance angle eyed in Victory bus burning

Quezon City police are looking into the possibility of insurance fraud in the burning Wednesday night of a Victory Liner bus.

In a press conference in Camp Crame Friday, Quezon City Police District chief Senior Supt. Magtanggol Gatdula stressed they were exploring all angles in the investigation of the case.

He said the police also had not completely dismissed the possibility that the crime was committed by a group trying to extort money from the company, or that some disgruntled employees were involved.

But the QCPD ruled out the involvement of communist rebels.

Gatdula said they were puzzled by the “non-cooperation” of the bus company management.

‘Secretive by nature’

“We were told management was secretive by nature, so we are having a hard time investigating the case. Every time we see a development in the case, company officials just shrug their shoulders and say: ‘Insurance will take care of that,’” Gatdula said.

He said the police were also puzzled why buses parked at the back of the company garage in Cubao were targeted instead of the newer vehicles in front.

Gatdula said old buses of the company had also been burned at an average of three in areas outside Metro Manila, like Region 3.

He added, however, that they had not received any report of an extortion attempt.

The police official cited the lack of security in the garage, adding that security agencies, as well as the companies themselves, should be held responsible for negligence if crimes occur in their premises.

Gatdula said the Victory Liner garage was improperly guarded and poorly lit.

In eliminating the NPA angle, Gatdula said that if the group was responsible, “they should have made an announcement on their website.”

Supt. Franklin Moises Mabanag of the QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said the company did not receive any extortion or demand letters from communist guerillas.

Still, “we’re not completely abandoning that very minute possibility,” he told the Inquirer.

At least 10 unidentified armed men barged into the Victory Liner parking lot in Barangay Pinagkaisahan around 11:15 p.m. and set on fire one of the parked buses.

5 other buses

Five other buses were partly damaged in the attack. The men disarmed the lone watchman before fleeing on a van without a license plate.

Mabanag said they were closely reviewing at least eight labor-related cases against the company in Zambales and Metro Manila.

He said they requested a list of recently dismissed employees from the firm. Some drivers and conductors were reported to be also disgruntled because of strict company regulations, he added.

Mabanag said they would look into the possibility that Wednesday’s attack was related to past incidents where Victory Liner buses were torched.

Gatdula said that so far, none of the top officials of the company had given a statement to investigators. By Alcuin Papa, Marlon Ramos - Philippine Daily Inquirer