Police launch manhunt against ‘Pajero Lady’

The Central Police District (CPD) yesterday launched a manhunt for a big time swindler and thief who reportedly escaped from her police escort while undergoing treatment at the St. Lukes Hospital in Quezon City.

Chief Superintendent Nicasio Radovan said police operatives are now tracking down Josephine Roque Garcia, otherwise known as "Pajero lady."

The prisoner was being escorted from the Women’s Correctional to the hospital when she escaped.

Police reports said the convict was brought to the hospital from the Women’s Correctional for treatment at about 11 p.m. Her prison guards reported her missing at 1 a.m.

Garcia, who used the aliases Maria Lourdes de Guzman, Malou De Guzman, Lourdes Santiago and Rowena Crisostomo, was arrested by CPD elements last February.

Radovan told The STAR in a telephone interview that he has yet to receive the full report but police units in various parts of the city have been alerted.

Garcia, 25, is facing 25 criminal cases including carnapping , robbery, estafa and theft committed in plush subdivisions in Paranaque City.

La Loma police operatives arrested Garcial while trying to break into an apartment in the city. She was convicted in absentia in 1996 .

Reports said Garcia usually befriends house helpers and trick them into carrying out her criminal activities. She was also said to drive parked Pajero cars.

Among the victims of the "Pajero lady" reportedly include former National Security Adviser Jose Almonte, former President Fidel Ramos, retired General Dionesio Santiago and several prominent Filipino Chinese businessmen.

Garcia has attempted to change her identity by undergoing plastic surgery and once made it appear that she died in a car accident to elude arrest but police investigators found out that her fingerprints did not match the fingerprints of the charred remains of a body found inside a car. Detectives matched her fingerprints to the elusive "Pajero lady."