AWOL cop, 3 others nabbed in Quezon City for carnapping

MANILA, Philippines — A police officer who had gone Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) and his three other cohorts were arrested in Quezon City for alleged carnapping, police said Monday.

A report from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) – Station 2 (Masambong) identified the former officer as Pat. John Rhey Bautista and his arrested companions as Albert Hipolito, Christopher Orosco, and Roderick Sarang. A fifth suspect, Joanna Mae Turingan, remains at large.

According to police, Turingan approached the complainant on September 12 to rent a Mitsubishi Montero and Mitsubishi Mirage for P22,000 with a deal that she will return the vehicles on Sunday, September 15.

But when the complainant noticed at about 6 a.m. on Sunday that the Global Positioning System (GPS) device of the two vehicles were turned off, he immediately reported the incident to Police Station 2 of the QCPD. Police said the complainant was able to locate the Mitsubishi Montero in Visayas Avenue since its back-up GPS is still active.

Officers then immediately launched an operation and spotted the last known location of the vehicle along Tomas Morato Street.

During the operation, the suspects Bautista, Hipolito, and Orosco were seen inside the vehicle, while Sarang was onboard a Toyota Avanza which police said was a back-up vehicle of the group. Police said they failed to show documents that they owned the flagged vehicles. 

Recovered from the group were a caliber 9mm pistol which served as Bautista’s service firearm, a short magazine loaded with seven bullets, a long magazine with 18 bullets, another firearm and its magazine with 15 bullets and is also owned by the Philippine National Police, three cellphones, a PNP identification card and other IDs of Bautista, other assorted IDs, and a firearm license card.

Lt. Col. Rodrigo Soriano, chief of the Masambong Police, told INQUIRER.net that Bautista was last assigned at the Southern Police District of the National Capital Region Police Office before he went AWOL in 2014.

The Mitsubishi Mirage was not recovered. A manhunt operation is ongoing to arrest Turingan, police said. /je