Hijacked delivery van found

Police are hot on the trail of at least three unidentified armed highjackers who abandoned a 10-wheeler truck containing some P600,000 worth of cargo before dawn yesterday in Valenzuela City.

Superintendent Jose Marcelo, Valenzuela City police chief, said that the cargo truck (DVT 536) was recovered along Apolonia street in Barangay Mapulang Lupa at around 3:30 a.m.

The truck’s load of at least 1,000 boxes of Universal Robina Corp. (URC’s) food products placed inside a 40-footer container van remained intact.

Marcelo said that the 10-wheeler truck driven by one Virgilio Irang, 38, was hijacked by three armed men while parked in front of the URC warehouse in Bagong Ilog, Pasig City at about 11 p.m. Monday.

Irang, accompanied by his helper, identified as Allan Albacino, 23, has just arrived from the FCIE warehouse in Dasmarinas, Cavite, where they picked up the cargo when the suspects armed with handguns reportedly approached them. At gunpoint, the suspects hog-tied the driver and his helper and covered their mouth with masking tape, police prober SPO4 Henry Marteja said.

One of the suspects took the wheels of the cargo truck and sped off toward Valenzuela City. Upon reaching Apolonia street in Barangay Mapulang Lupa, the truck malfunctioned prompting the suspects to abandon it leaving Irang and Alabacino and the cargo, Marteja said.

Senior Superintendent Marcelino Franco Jr., Northern Police District (NPD) director, ordered Marcelo yesterday to immediately coordinate with the Traffic Management Group (TMG) for the possible arrest of the suspects.