MANILA, Philippines–A cargo truck containing P1 million worth of milk products was allegedly waylaid by three robbers, one of whom was wearing a police jacket, in Quezon City early Monday morning.
Case investigator SPO1 Eric Lazo said the assailants hijacked the 10-wheeler truck (plate no. DVG 370), registered to the Espino Trucking Company, on Mindanao Avenue near the Veterans Memorial Medical Center compound at around 1 a.m.
According to Lazo, the hijackers abandoned the truck in Manila after they emptied the vehicle of its cargo of Alaska milk products–both in liquid and powder form–that was supposed to be delivered to a warehouse in Pampanga.
Truck driver Arnel Calo, 36 was accompanied by helpers Lorebert Aldovino, 28, and Dennis Galasi, 27 from an Alaska factory in San Pedro, Laguna.
Aldovino told police that they loaded around 1,400 large boxes, each worth more than P1,000, on Sunday night.
The cargo truck had just made a right turn from North Avenue into Mindanao Avenue when its passengers noticed a man onboard a motorcycle trailing them.
Calo described the man as wearing a helmet, a police jacket, black pants and a gun holster on his right leg.
The man drove up beside them and asked the truck driver to stop.
Thinking that the man was a policeman, Calo parked the truck along the curb beside VMMC as the man approached them to ask for Calo’s driver’s license.
As Calo handed over his license, he was jolted by the truck’s left side door bursting open, revealing the fake policeman’s two cohorts.
The two assailants boarded the truck and shoved the three workers into the rear portion of the vehicle.
The workers told police investigators that the suspects bound their hands and covered their hands and eyes with packing tape.
Calo recalled that the hijackers drove the truck for an hour, stopping somewhere to unload the cargo.
After the unloading, the workers felt the truck move again and was later abandoned in Sampaloc, Manila.
Five minutes after being abandoned, Calo and his helpers began removing the packing tape after hearing the hijackers slam the truck doors shut.