Know Your Bus Series - Dagupan Bus Company, Inc

Dagupan Bus Company, Inc. is a provincial bus company operating along the northern and central regions of Luzon. In the course of history of the company, it has always been operated under the supervision of, and integrated with, different companies.

To understand Dagupan Bus Company's beginnings, we have to look at the background of Villa Rey Transit, Inc., who sold its franchises to Dagupan's parent, Saulog Transit.

Villa Rey Transit, Inc. was a Manila-based company which started as a sole proprietorship under the name of Dr. Jose M. Villarama. Before Dr. Villarama's stellar political career as vice-governor, and then governor of Bulacan in the 1960's, he was a well established businessman in the transportation industry, and probably started operation in the early post-war years. His areas of operation included Bulacan (his home province), Tarlac, and Pangasinan. His fleet of TPU buses and autotrucks would grow so large that people regarded Villa Rey Transit as Pantranco's biggest competitor in Pangasinan-Manila routes at that time.

In 1959, Pantranco bought Dr. Villarama's franchises in Pangasinan; after a few months, Villarama's relatives (including his wife) established the Villa Rey Transit, Inc. (now a corporation) and bought the assets of Angat-Manila Transportation Co. (owned by Valentin Fernando) which included lines in Pangasinan similar to the old Villa Rey's franchise sold to Pantranco. Thus the old rivalry was established, but not before the resolution of numerous court cases between Villa Rey and Pantranco over the transactions stated.

In 1974, the Villarama family sold the company a second time, now to Cavite-based Saulog Transit, Inc. This led to the creation of a subsidiary, Dagupan Bus Co., to operate Villa Rey's old lines. These franchises include routes to Lingayen, Alaminos, Bolinao, Dagupan, San Carlos, and Baguio City - well within the line of sight of Pantranco North Express, but no hostilities with two competitors were known to be apparent. Starting from six Mitsubishi Fuso coaches, Dagupan Bus slowly but steadily filled up Villarama's old franchises with buses and coaches of its own.

Thus, for a few quiet decades, Dagupan Bus maintained its presence in Pangasinan and Baguio, and notwithstanding a few civil and labor cases arising from the company's operations, it became a respected transport company during the times it operated. Saulog's relationship to Dagupan Bus is well-publicized - the similar units, similar liveries, and the fact that if one company was disabled for some reason, the other would come to the rescue with its units. It was apparent in one occassion when Saulog Transit workers went on strike around September 1986; Saulog went and used some units of Dagupan in the meantime. In 1989 and 1990, Dagupan Bus expanded with additional units and franchise for its San Carlos line, and made a major move by operating in Isabela and Cagayan under its new franchises in Santiago and Tuguegarao.

In 2010, Genesis Transport and Saulog Transit signed a memorandum of understanding wherein Genesis would be alloted all franchises of Saulog and Dagupan Bus. Thus, the two companies went under Genesis' control. In its brief time under Genesis Transport, Dagupan Bus would remain in its well-known routes, including the famous Cubao-Manaoag run.

It was also during Genesis' operation that Dagupan Bus entered an agreement with G.V. Florida Transport for the exchange of the latter's Bataan line with the former's Tuguegarao line. This transaction would later implicate Dagupan Bus during GV Florida's trial for the infamous accident in Bontoc, Mountain Province, as the ill-fated bus was registered in the name of Dagupan. It later became clear that Dagupan Bus never owned the bus and GV Florida registered it under the former's name as preparation for its confirmation (as a substitute unit) using the CPC acquired from Dagupan Bus. Dagupan Bus was subsequently cleared of charges and the show-cause order against it set aside.

Around 2015, the stocks of Dagupan Bus Company fell under the controlling interest of JAC Liner, Inc. As a controlling shareholder, JAC retained Dagupan Bus' corporate identity, units, and majority of its lines. Genesis, however, maintained possession of Dagupan Bus' Baguio line; as it cannot use the company's name (the rights being transferred to JAC) it formed North Genesis Bus Line, Inc. to maintain its Baguio lines (later, Genesis would integrate all its Baguio-NCR regular buses to North Gen's operations).

Under JAC Liner, Dagupan Bus was integrated into the operations of Pangasinan Solid North Transit, Inc. (founded in 2011 as a result of the buy-out of De Leon Express based in Tarlac City). The company's old layover areas and terminal in New York-Cubao was acquired by North Genesis, so Dagupan moved to the facilities of Solid North; the Manaoag line, however remained in the New York terminal, and the dispatching booth remained under Dagupan Bus control. Later, Genesis would grant JAC Liner the last Pangasinan lines remaining to its company (the San Fabian, Manaoag and Lingayen lines of Saulog Transit), now duly transferred to Dagupan Bus.

As a subsidiary company for all of its history, Dagupan Bus' units and liveries maintain similar (if not the same) styles as its parent company of the time. During Saulog's operation of Dagupan Bus, its units include (but not limited to) Hino and Isuzu buses that complement Saulog's, dressed in the same livery but colored in shades of brown, green and orange. Under Genesis, Dagupan's units were supplemented by Daewoo, Golden Dragon, and Yutong buses (among others), in the same color schemes as before. Under JAC Liner, all of its units were dressed in the JAC uniform and a new corporate logo and typeface made (the first A is stylized to resemble a north-pointing arrow, reflecting the location of its operating areas). As a JAC Liner subsidiary, while it retained possessions of all its old units (it would be impractical to replace all with one fell swoop as some these units were not even 10 years old at the time), all subsequent units were, and will be, purchased at Yutong.

Today, Dagupan Bus operates 24 hours a day from Cubao towards major towns in western and central Pangasinan (Bolinao, Alaminos, Lingayen, Dagupan, Manaoag, San Carlos) and back, in major competition with Pangasinan Five Star (and its subsidiaries) and Victory.