Rookie NPD cop held for driving stolen SUV

A rookie policeman under the Northern Police District is facing summary dismissal proceedings after being arrested while driving a stolen sport utility vehicle in Muntinlupa City, the Philippine National Police said Friday.

PO1 Argel Nabor of the NPD’s District Public Safety Battalion and his alleged civilian cohort Roberto Relayo Jr. have been formally charged in the Pasay City prosecutor’s office for car theft and use of a fake license plate.

Reports reaching Chief Supt. Arrazad Subong, head of the PNP Highway Patrol Group, showed that Nabor and Relayo were onboard a black Toyota Hilux (TOG-340), with Nabor driving, when intercepted by a mobile team from the Regional Highway Patrol Unit–National Capital Region on Daang Hari, Muntinlupa, in the afternoon of Oct 31.

The suspects were flagged down initially for the following violations: lack of a 2013 validating sticker on the windshield, illegal use of a siren, and having a license plate that not only looked fake but also had a colored cover.

A check with the HPG’s Vehicle Information Management System later revealed that the SUV was on the HPG watch-list for stolen vehicles.

It was earlier reported that the same vehicle was seized at gunpoint from driver Sony Boy dela Peña by three men on Sept. 17 around 2 a.m. in front of Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Terminal 3 in Pasay City.

The SUV’s license plate also turned out to be fake, according to the Land Transportation Office. The real license plate marked TOG-340 was originally issued to another Toyota Hilux owned by ATA Clara Power Corp., its office located on Edsa, Mandaluyong City.

The vehicle was originally registered to Jerome Santos of Tondo, Manila.

Nabor and Relayo remained in detention on Friday at the RHPU-NCR office in Camp Crame.

The NPD has jurisdiction over the so-called Camanava area composed of the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela.