BACOLOD CITY—The Philippine National Police (PNP) is running after employees of a government agency who may be in cahoots with a car theft syndicate which has been shipping stolen vans and sports utility vehicles from Metro Manila to the Visayas and Mindanao.
PNP Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome said the identities of these unscrupulous government officials would be unmasked once the PNP had completed the investigation.
“This should serve as a warning to those who are in cahoots with carnapping syndicates, whether or not they are in an agency involved in the documentation of vehicles, their days will soon be over,” he said.
Bartolome on Friday commended the PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) for the recovery of 23 vehicles reportedly stolen in Metro Manila and other areas of the country.
He said the recovery of the 23 stolen vehicles in Negros Occidental and six others in Cagayan de Oro was the biggest accomplishment of the HPG in recent years.
The 23 vehicles were presented on Friday by Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina, HPG director, to Bartolome, who spoke at the graduation of the PNP Special Counter Insurgency Operation Unit Training at Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. in Bacolod City.
Bartolome said the HPG crippled the operations of the car theft syndicate with the recovery of the vehicles.
Espina said the shipment of the stolen vehicles from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao became rampant after the dismantling of the HPG inspection units fielded in key ports of the country in 2001.
He identified the Baktin Group, a highly-organized car theft syndicate, as the one behind the sale of stolen luxury vehicles in Bacolod City, and other parts of Negros Occidental, as well as in Mindanao.
The luxury vans and sport utility vehicles were reportedly being sold by the syndicate at 50 percent of their original price.
A disgruntled member of the syndicate allegedly tipped the police on the modus operandi of the group, leading to the recovery of the stolen vehicles. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas