Robbers abandon hijacked truck near police checkpoint

MANILA, Philippines—Suspected hijackers, apparently unnerved by the sight of a police checkpoint ahead, abandoned a stolen truck loaded with some P1 million worth of rice in Manila’s  Sampaloc district early Friday morning.

Operatives of the Manila Police District’s Station 4 recovered at around 4 a.m. the hijcked Isuzu ten-wheeler truck (GDD-357) owned by the Golden Harvest Rice Mill, at the corner of Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard and Santol Street.

Tricycle driver Isagani Labasa, 25, had informed MPD personnel manning the checkpoint on Santol Street that two men had alighted from the loaded truck and flagged him down.

The men, Labasa claimed, asked to be conveyed to the corner of Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard and Maganda Street. There, the men got off and casually walked away.

Labasa found the men suspicious and decided to report them to the police.  Officers from Station 4 gave chase but failed to catch up with the suspects.

Sampaloc station commander Supt. Jemar Modequillo said that a check on the abandoned truck showed that it had been hijacked on 7th Avenue in Caloocan City while it was traveling to a garage in Tondo around 2 a.m. Friday.

Cipriano Garcia, 32, the truck’s driver from Cabatuan, Isabela, told investigators he and his helper were cruising along 7th Avenue when  they were blocked by a group of men armed with high-powered guns.

Garcia said the men ordered them to get off the truck, while two of the hijackers commandeered the vehicle. Garcia and his helper were then blindfolded and directed to board a van.

Modequillo said that the two rice mill employees were then left behind by the hijackers somewhere along 10th Avenue in Caloocan City.  Garcia and his co-worker immediately sought the help of and reported the hijacking to the local police.

The Sampaloc police station commander pointed out that he has coordinated with the Highway Patrol Group in Camp Crame for the identification and arrest of the hijackers.