QC cop loses identity to cabbie

Since May this year, SPO1 Roberto Raciles has had two traffic violation tickets for his driver’s license—supposedly incurred while driving a taxi.

But the irony of it is that Raciles—who is assigned to the Anonas police station in Quezon City—lost his driver’s license two years ago and had never driven a cab all his life.

Alarmed that someone else was using his lost driver’s license and his Philippine National Police identification card, Raciles went to the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit in the hopes of arresting the impostor.

Raciles only learned about it after a security guard went to his house in Diliman on Friday night to give him the citation tickets for his driver’s license, which was left behind by a taxi driver the night before at Varsity Hills, Barangay Loyola Heights.

The guard went to Raciles’ home in the hopes of getting the driver’s license of another taxi driver that he accidentally switched at the gate in Varsity Hills, but was told by Raciles that he was not a taxi driver and that he was not in Varsity Hills on Thursday night.

“I don’t want to get mixed up with this taxi driver if he is committing crimes,” said Raciles, who lost his wallet containing the IDs in May 2010. He has replaced his IDs since then.

CIDU desk officer SPO1 Jaime Jimena said the taxi driver might face charges of concealing through the use of another name and usurpation of authority.

Policemen have not yet identified the taxi driver who had been using Raciles’ driver’s license although a closed circuit television camera footage at the Varsity Hills gate showed the taxi to be a Jericho Roy taxi with license plate UVH 459.

Raciles lost his wallet in May 2010 when it fell off from his back pocket while riding on his motorcycle along Malingap St. in Teacher’s Village, Quezon City.

After learning that it was missing, he returned to the area and found a taxi parked nearby. But its driver claimed he did not notice any wallet.

Based on the citation tickets that Raciles got from the security guard, whoever that driver was received two traffic violations since May, one from Pasay City and another from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Another security guard told Raciles that he even had a spat with the unidentified taxi driver for driving fast while entering Varsity Hills on Thursday night.

But the taxi driver allegedly threatened the guard and showed Raciles’s PNP ID, claiming that Raciles was his friend.

The guard at the subdivision gate accidentally gave him another driver’s license and only learned of the switch when the other driver came to return the citation tickets in Raciles’ name.