10 men caught cutting up old rail track in Laguna

SAN PEDRO CITY — Police on Thursday arrested 10 men from this city caught in the act of splicing an old Philippine National Railways (PNR) track to sell the metal bars to junk shops.

As of 7 p.m., the police and an engineer from the PNR are still counting and weighing several pieces of cut up rail tracks.

Supt. Giovannie Martinez, the city police chief, said a concerned citizen called the police around 10:30 a.m. after noticing that a group of men was cutting up the tracks in Barangay Pacita 1.

He said the men carried with them tools like acetylene cutters powered by liquefied petroleum gas tanks. Police said the suspects loaded the metal bars in a truck parked nearby.

The railway in this part of the city has been unused for a long time. The government has plans to revive the railway system but issues like the presence of informal settlers and theft of railway parts, have hampered the efforts.

In a report, police identified the arrested suspects as Joel Perez Gillego, Junemar Perez Dela Fuente, Jake Perez Gillego, Regimel Polincio Artillagas, Ramil Villacorte Delos Santos, Micheal Galilea Solarte, Candido Tolentino, Erwin Insorio, Joseph Isip, and Jeffsal Salmorin. All of them were residents of Barangay Landayan here except for Isip, who was from Manila.

“They will be charged with robbery while the recovered metal scrap will be used as evidence before it is turned over to the PNR,” Martinez said in a phone interview. /ee