Know Your Bus Series: Silver Star Shuttle and Tours, Inc.

Photo By: Rotsen Oliver

Silver Star is a bus company serving the Metro Manila - Eastern Visayas route. Based in San Pedro, Laguna, the company is owned by the influential Mercado family, who possibly may be related to the Rizal family of Calamba.

Silver Star's ancestral roots may be traced back to 1968, when spouses Artemio and Josefina Mercado established the 4-unit JAM Transit, Inc., with an authorized route between their hometown of Biñan in Laguna and Plaza Lawton in Manila. Since then, four units become hundreds as they establish more routes and organized more companies: JAM Liner, Laguna Transportation Company, AMA Trans, among a few.

The Mercado family's first decline in business came in 1997, during the Asian financial crisis. In a dire situation, they were forced to let go of many of their assets, most particularly the JAM brand that carried the family initials. Crucial routes in Batangas, Quezon, and Bicol region (thru AMA Trans) were sold to Penta Realty in 2000, and the Mercados were left with a handful of other small companies such as Pacita Liner, Quezon Liner, and LTCI.

With what remained of them, the Mercados reorganized at the San Pedro base. The Laguna routes were integrated into one company, Green Star Express Inc., established in 2001. The Quezon route was operated as Quezon Liner for a while longer before being renamed South Star Express, and later Grand Star Coach Bus Company, Inc., sometime in 2003. Another family member, Engr. Homer Mercado, who at one point led the JAM group, established his own company at the family's Biñan base, becoming known as HM Transport, Inc., in 1997.

With business picking up again for the Mercados in southern Luzon, they set their horizons beyond the strait and to the other side of the sea. This led to the founding of Silver Star Shuttle and Tours, Inc., owned by Martelino Jose Mercado, sometime around 2004. During its first 2 years, using a combination of Hino RF and Nissan Diesel units from the old JAM Trans fleet, and brand-new KLQ6119 units purchased from the Higer dealership at HM's front yard, Silver Star operated the Cubao-Tacloban and Cubao-Liloan route.

In 2007, during President Gloria Arroyo's initiative of connecting the country thru roll-on-roll-off (RORO) ferry routes and highways, a flurry of RORO bus routes were applied by Silver Star, taking advantage of the exemption of RORO routes from moratorium (the ban on granting new franchises). Silver Star's authorized routes expanded to Rawis, Catarman, Borongan, Ormoc, and Tagbilaran, where the company fielded even more brand-new Higer and Nissan Diesel units.

In 2009, the company expanded yet again, this time to Maasin in Southern Leyte. The last Nissan Diesel units of Silver Star were purchased during this period.

As the years went on, Silver Star went on to becoming more established, outliving its elderly company siblings Grand Star (which collapsed before 2010) and Green Star (majority of routes taken over in 2013); both were incidentally bought by the JAC Liner group and operated by LLI. In contrast to Green Star's fate, Silver Star seems to be rolling in the success of the Eastern Visayas routes. The old JAM Trans units gave way to shiny Yutong, Hino and Daewoo buses between 2010 and 2013. A workers' strike in 2015 did not dampen the company's spirits; on the contrary, after this challenging year, even more units were bought by the company from Yutong and Hino, including rare samples of the ZK6118H.

In 2019, Silver Star became the proud owner of the first and currently only Almazora-bodied Volvo B11R, followed soon after by an Autodelta-bodied B11R.

Silver Star's branding previously consisted of double yellow stars (consistent to the Mercado group) and cursive lettering. In 2010, Silver Star changed its livery from its previous cheatlines into a curvy one similar to Green Star's, with yellow and gray colors. In 2014, the double stars are abandoned and the livery consisted of yellow, red and orange "shooting stars".

At present, Silver Star makes daily trips from Cubao to various destinations in Eastern Visayas and Bohol, with a stop at their homebase in San Pedro. Their current lineup of units consist of Higer, Yutong, Ankai, Daewoo, Hino, and Volvo airconditioned units, and Nissan Diesel ordinary units.