Renovated impounding facility for stolen vehicles in Cebu reopens

MANILA, Philippines—A newly-renovated impounding facility for stolen vehicles in Cebu province was reopened Saturday in the Central Visayas region.

The impounding facility in Lahug, Cebu City, houses more than 100 “hot cars” seized last year by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission. It will be supervisedby the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group under police regional office 7.

Chief Superintendent Reginald Villasanta, PAOCC executive director, said the impounding facility was renovated “in anticipation of recovery of more stolen vehicles in the wake of the government’s intensified anti-carnapping drive.”

Police have tagged Central Visayas as a “major transshipment hub for stolen cars” from Luzon.

In 2012, authorities discovered a warehouse in Cebu City that served as a facility for “rebirthing,”or the process of “tampering with, repainting and detailing” stolen cars before the car thieves resell these under new registrations.

Under the law, car theft is defined as “the taking, with intent to gain, of a motor vehicle belonging to another without the latter’s consent, or by means of violence against or intimidation of persons, or by using force upon things.”

August of the same year, Jovel Entote, who is said to be the “godfather” of all car theft syndicates in the country, was arrested during a police operation in Cebu City.

The 43-year-old Entote was accused of shooting dead Rodolfo Petaliano, the driver of a white Toyota Grandia van in April 2009, and stealing the vehicle from the parking lot of a church on Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.

But in November 2012, Judge Eleuterio Bathan of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 92 acquitted Entote as the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Bathan also cited the inconsistencies in the testimony of two prosecution witnesses.

Related stories:

 3 ‘hot cars’ seized

Court acquits ‘godfather’ of car theft syndicates