‘Godfather’ of car theft gangs nabbed

The Godfather is now a jailbird.

Members of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) of the Philippine National Police and Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) have arrested in Cebu City the alleged “godfather” of car theft syndicates in the country.

In a news briefing at Camp Crame Monday, HPG director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said that Jovel Entote, 43, was the leader of a group believed to be behind several car theft incidents in Metro Manila.

According to Espina, Entote used his car trading business in Cebu province to sell the stolen vehicles in Visayas and Mindanao.

“We expect [his] arrest to further bring down the incidence of car [theft] in the country,” Espina told reporters.

Chief Superintendent Reginald Villasanta, PAOCC executive director, said that Entote was arrested at the parking lot of Casino Espanol de Cebu at 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 7.

He added that the arrest was covered by a warrant issued by a Quezon City Regional Trial Court in connection with the killing of Rodolfo Petalino in 2009.

Petalino was shot and killed by men who forcibly took the Toyota Grandia van

he was driving in Katipunan, Quezon City.

Villasanta said two witnesses had positively identified Entote as the man who gunned down Petalino when the victim tried to fight off the car thieves.

Authorities recovered the van in Bacolod City on Oct. 28, 2011. They later found out that Entote had sold the vehicle to Norman Kho, an official of a lending company.

“We consider [Entote] as our biggest catch since PAOCC and HPG launched a crackdown against carjacking last February,” he added.

In a follow-up operation, HPG agents arrested Entote’s wife, Mary Anne, after a raid on their house at Barangay Banilad yielded a Honda Jazz and a BMW with supposedly fake documents.

She was released Monday upon the order of Cebu City Prosecutor Rudolph Joseph Carillo who said there was insufficient basis for her arrest, said Edwin Engay, HPG legal counsel.

The couple’s lawyer, Noel Archival, meanwhile, denied the charges against

his clients as he described Jovel as a respected businessman in Cebu.

He added that the police had yet to prove that Mary Anne was involved in any illegal activity. With Chito O. Aragon and Connie E. Fernandez, Inquirer Visayas