13 PNP, LTO men under probe for carjack links

MANILA, Philippines - Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo bared yesterday that at least 13 personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Land Transportation Office (LTO) are under investigation for allegedly conniving with carjackers.

Robredo said the carjacking gangs operate in various areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

“We are investigating 11 names (in) the PNP. If you include LTO, more than 13 (persons). This traces up to Visayas and Mindanao,” Robredo said.

The STAR reported that about 30 LTO and PNP officials and personnel are facing criminal and administrative charges for alleged involvement in car theft since 2001.

PNP Highway Patrol Group (HPG) director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said the anti-carjacking unit has not received any report or information pertaining to Director Roberto Rosales, current chief of the PNP’s Directorate for Integrated Police Operations-Northern Luzon, as one of the coddlers of the car theft syndicate.

“The name of Director Rosales (came up) but in fairness to him, there were no reports from intelligence or investigation as far as we in the HPG are concerned,” he added.

Espina said PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo asked him to check on the reports. “We will just continue with our proactive campaign. I would be filing the criminal charges against all those who are implicated here… we based ours on solid evidence, probative value.”

He said that Bacalzo tapped Director Arturo Cacdac Jr. to head the investigation on allegations that Rosales was involved in carjacking.

Espina refused to name the chief superintendent whom he earlier said was under investigation for conniving with car thieves.

“In due time when we have the necessary evidence we will name him, we have to file cases against those responsible,” he said, adding the chief superintendent had retired.

Espina also appealed to the public and other units of the government to forward to the HPG any information about carjacking.

“Measures should be in the proper perspective, it should be forwarded to proper units for evaluation to avoid undue speculation.”

“In fairness to everybody we have to gather evidence of probative value before we can accuse anybody and the only time we will name them is when we file the necessary cases in court, to be fair with everybody,” he added.

President Aquino had ordered the DILG and PNP to intensify the purging of scalawags from the PNP amid allegations that some of its members were conspirators or protectors of carjackers and other criminals.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said yesterday the President met with Secretary Robredo, DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno and Bacalzo and told them to act, if they were not yet acting enough, to remove the shenanigans within the PNP.

“If they are encountering problems in their operations, we expressed support for whatever they need to do,” Ochoa said over radio dzMM.

The National Police Commission (Napolcom) assured the people that the agency would start investigating the alleged link of Rosales to carjacking gangs once there was more reliable information against the police official.

Napolcom vice chairman and executive officer Eduardo Escueta said the information linking Rosales appears to be unreliable.

“We are still in the process of data validation. We cannot conduct a formal probe yet as the information is unreliable. The information needs to be reliable before we conduct an investigation that would affect the career of a senior ranking police official,” said Escueta.

He added that even the military, which was supposed to be the source of the intelligence report used as basis of news reports linking Rosales to carjacking, has denied the supposed intelligence report.

Rosales was named as the protector of the carjack group, allegedly through Superintendent Napoleon Cauyan, former head of the defunct Traffic Management Group Task Force Limbas in Central Luzon.

The allegation against Rosales was supposedly included in a report by a military intelligence unit.

Rosales and Cauyan have denied the allegations.

Rosales even challenged the Armed Forces to prove the report.

Escueta said although Napolcom chairman and Interior Secretary Robredo had earlier announced that there are some ranking police officers involved with carjacking groups, it appears that based on the information at hand, Rosales is not among them.

“Otherwise, Secretary Robredo could have announced outright that he (Rosales) is really involved,” said Escueta.

Rosales hits smear campaign

In a press conference in Camp Crame yesterday, Rosales said the people who came out with the alleged intelligence report linking him to carjack operations are actually the people protecting carjacking groups.

He said the move to link him to carjacking syndicates is a “smear campaign” to discredit him in his anti-criminality drive.

Rosales had a confrontation with the journalist who wrote the report linking him to carjacking operations.

“Over what you did, categorically I tell you, you destroyed me,” Rosales told Arlyn de la Cruz, who contributed her article to a broadsheet newspaper regarding the supposed reports of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) about the carjack gangs.

De la Cruz attended the press conference called by Rosales at the Multi-Purpose Hall of the PNP in Camp Crame yesterday.

Rosales said he wanted to clear his name over alleged involvement in car thefts. He was accompanied by his wife Cora.

“If I have any ill-feelings toward you, it started because my reputation was besmirched,” said Rosales. “You should rectify your report, otherwise you will not be able to recover from that.”

For her part, De la Cruz stood by her story, although she admitted that her report did not necessarily mean Rosales was indeed involved in illegal activities.

She reported that Rosales and Cauyan are being investigated for alleged involvement in carjacking gangs.

Robredo said that the DILG has not received any intelligence report from the AFP on the alleged link of Rosales and Cauyan to the Dominguez gang.

The Intelligence Group (IG) of the PNP said that they have no report linking Rosales to the Dominguez carjacking group.

“We have no such report. Even verbally, I received no reports linking Director Rosales to carjacking syndicates,” Chief Superintendent Manuel Barcena, IG chief, told The STAR.

But Barcena admitted that he sent one of his men to seek the help of Cauyan in solving the kidnap-slay of car dealers Venson Evangelista and Emerson Lozano and his driver.

The IG chief pointed out that being a former chief of Task Force Limbas of the HPG, he had the gut feeling that Cauyan could help them find a solution to the car dealers’ cases.

“As part of our normal operation, we approached Cauyan believing that he could provide us with information on who could be behind the slayings,” said Barcena. “This does not mean that by approaching him he is a suspect already.”

Barcena did not say whether the information they got from Cauyan helped the PNP in neutralizing the Dominguez carjacking gang, headed by Raymond Dominguez, who is now behind bars.

Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Benjardi Mantele defended Rosales from allegations that the police official was a protector of the gang allegedly led by brothers Raymond and Roger Dominguez.

“I know Gen. Rosales to be a good person,” Mantele told reporters on the sidelines of the QCPD’s presentation of arrested motorcycle theft suspects at Camp Karingal yesterday.

“I’ve worked with himand I don’t believe in the allegations,” Mantele said.

He said the police “work (based on) on evidence” and he does not see anything supporting the allegations against Rosales.

Police investigators are verifying the alleged list of personalities listed in the payroll of the Dominguez gang.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Alumni Association, urged the media to be fair in reporting about Rosales, who was accused of protecting a car theft syndicate.

Biazon said journalists should validate the information they are getting since their reports could affect the image of people.

“Our concern is that the graduates of the academy have been under siege. For all we know, there are interested parties out there riding on these issues,” Biazon, a member of Class 1961, said.

“The media should be balanced because if you hear a rumor and then it was disseminated to the public, the one tagged would no longer have a defense even if he is not involved in anomalies,” he added.

Meanwhile, lawyer Oliver Lozano said Roger Dominguez is now cornered in a safe house somewhere in Central Luzon and would surrender or be arrested in the coming days. –With Mike Frialde, Reinir Padua, Non Alquitran, Ric Sapnu

Lozano, father of one of the gang’s victims, said he was informed by officials of the police task force investigating his son’s case that Dominguez is not only being hunted by the authorities but also bounty hunters hired by families of the syndicate’s other victims.

Dominguez’s younger brother Raymond earlier surrendered to authorities.

“One of these days, he (Roger) will be arrested,” Lozano told reporters in the House of Representatives after meeting with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on a draft of a proposed bill seeking stiffer penalties for carjacking.

A source said the police recovered a laptop computer from one of the safe houses of the gang, and the hard drive had a list of personalities that allegedly received bribes from the gang.

The source, however, did not divulge who has the laptop and whose names were in the list.

Police recovered the laptop during a search of a safe house of the Dominguez brothers at Guesa Apartment B, Greenville Subdivision in Barangay San Jose, San Fernando, Pampanga last Jan. 20.

A certain Alfred Mendiola and Batibot Parulan were reportedly arrested at the apartment. A Ford Expedition and a green Pajero were recovered at the safe house. With Mike Frialde, Reinir Padua, Non Alquitran, Ric Sapnu