University professor Lourdes "Chit" Estella Simbulan was killed in a vehicular crash along the expansive Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City, considered one of the country's deadliest roads due to the frequency of high-speed crashes in the area.
Estella was riding a taxi near the UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub in Quezon City on Friday night, police said. The bus reportedly collided with the taxi just as the latter had made a u-turn.
The 54-year old Simbulan was a co-founder and trustee of VERA Files, a news website that produces in-depth reports on current events, many of which have been published on GMA News Online.
She was also a full-time professor at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, where she trained numerous professionals now working in mass media.
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Witnesses said a bus belonging to the Universal Guiding Star Bus Line rammed into the taxi carrying Simbulan at 6 p.m., according to investigator SPO4 Nelson Apostol.
Simbulan was brought to the General Miguel Malvar Medical Foundation Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival, the investigator said.
Apostol said the driver of the bus fled after the incident and police are now pursuing him.
"Yuping-yupi ‘yung taxi. 'Di na nga makilala 'yung sasakyan," Apostol told GMA News Online.
According to VERA Files, Simbulan was a journalism graduate of UP Diliman and held a master’s degree in public management from the UP Open University.
A highly respected journalist and teacher, Simbulan started her career as a reporter of the Manila Evening Post in the early 1980s. She went on to work for Tempo, Ang Pahayagang Malaya, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
"What made her stand out was her gentle, almost motherly attitude toward her students," said Simbulan's former student and GMA News reporter Jam Sisante, adding that Simbulan made it a point to remember her students by their names.
Sisante recalled how Simbulan had contributed her "valuable assistance" to her undergraduate thesis. "We were doing an investigative report and needed much guidance from investigative journalists like her," Sisante added.
Simbulan served as managing editor of the Manila Times and later, as editor-in-chief of Pinoy Times, a Filipino-language tabloid that published critical stories about former president Joseph Estrada.
