Cops search for jeepney used in kidnap of 5 girls

MANILA, Philippines - Police are looking for a passenger jeepney used by armed men in kidnapping of at least five girls in Navotas City last week.

Superintendent Rio Gatacilo, Northern Police District public information office chief, said the local police are closely coordinating with the Navotas City government to “review” footage caught by a surveillance camera during the incident.

“We need to trace the PUJ (public utility jeepney) used in the said abduction in order to identify the perpetrators,” Gatacilo told The STAR yesterday.

Gatacilo said the lone complainant in the case, a 17-year-old student who was able to escape from their abductors, no longer wants to talk to the police.

On the night of Nov. 18, a girl showed up at the Navotas City police station claiming that she and four other girls were kidnapped by at least five armed men using a passenger jeepney with a Gasak, Navotas-Divisoria, Manila route along C-4 Road at around 4:30 p.m.

She said the kidnappers brought them to a house in Divisoria in Manila purportedly to be sold to foreigners, but she was able to escape.

Accompanied by her parent, the victim reported the incident to the Navotas City police station’s women and children’s protection unit but the police failed to get information from the still incoherent victim.

She was advised to first go home and compose herself and then return to the police station but she never did.

The local police have no information on the fate of the four other girls.

“This is the first time that I heard of a kidnapping case wherein the suspects used a PUJ, usually it’s the closed van they are using,” Gatacilo said.

Gatacilo said they hope the surveillance camera installed by the local government along C-4 Road could help the police identify the jeepney since its driver could be a member of a criminal group.