3 car thieves charged

Three of the six suspected car thieves arrested by the Manila police in a series of entrapment operations last Tuesday were finally charged by the Manila Prosecutor’s Office.

Fiscal Romeo Poso ruled that there is a probable cause to indict suspects Jerico Bonus, 23, and siblings Michael, 23, and Ingrid Yutingco, 25, with car theft charges. He also ruled that the warrantless arrest was in accordance with the law.

Police, however, did not include the second set of arrested suspects–Jerry Legaspi, 27; Darwin Singson, 25; and Jun de Casas–in the charge sheet after further investigation showed that the cars recovered from them were not stolen. They were subsequently set free.

The second set of suspects were only implicated by the car thieves, according to Senior Inspector Benjamin Reyes, chief of the anti-carnapping unit of the Western Police District. "It turned out that the thieves are only planning to pawn the stolen cars to these persons, who are actually casino financiers," said Reyes. He added the financiers even refused to accept the stolen cars offered by the suspects as collaterals for their loans.

Reyes said the three young suspects, who come from rich families, are casino habitues who turned to stealing cars to finance their vices. The three financiers are known to the suspects since they frequently pawn valuables to them whenever they run out of cash at the casinos.

"We later learned that the second set of suspects were small-time casino financiers since they could only afford to accept cellular phones as collateral for the loans," Reyes said.

Bonus and the Yutingco siblings were arrested after an entrapment operations following the complaint of an owner of a rent-a-car company.

Police said the suspects first rented from Hannan Rent-a-Car a white Toyota Altis and asked to be taken to Pangasinan. Along the way the trio tied up the company driver and dumped him in a rice field in Bacoor, Cavite and took the late-model car.

The same suspects then tried to rent another car from Assad Rent-a-Car, which turned out to be a sister company of Hannan. Police set up an entrapment operation leading to the arrest of the suspects in Sampaloc, Manila. A caliber .45 pistol was also recovered from the group.

Poso set a bail of P300,000 for each suspect who are presently detained at the Integrated Jail of the WPD.