Manila now Phl's car theft capital

MANILA, Philippines - Manila has grabbed the label of the Philippines’ car theft capital from Quezon City, the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) said yesterday.

“Since February, Manila tops the list of localities with the number of car theft incidents,” HPG spokesperson Edwin Butacan said in a news briefing at Camp Crame.

He also noted that there were only 50 car thefts in August this year, which is nearly 60 percent lower compared to 127 vehicles stolen last year.

Of the 50 vehicles reported missing last August, Butacan said 26 were motorcycles while the rest are either a Mitsubishi Montero, Nissan Urvan, Toyota Vios or a Toyota Grandia.

Butacan said Quezon City “has taken some measures” to make it hard for thieves to steal cars in the area.

He said the HPG statistics on car theft did not match statistics from local or territorial police because the HPG validates cases under Republic Act 6539 before listing an incident as a case of car theft.

HPG director Chief Superintendent Arrazad Subong has coordinated with Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Mario dela Vega for the actual statistics on car thefts.

“So now we can see that if we focus our police operations in a specific area to address its problems (on stolen vehicles), we can really decrease the number of car theft cases in that place,” Butacan said.

Senior Superintendent Robert Po, Manila Police District (MPD) deputy district director for operations, said he was sorry to hear the report although the district had not been remiss in their duty.

“I never realized the problem was that big because what we have here are usually reports about motorcycle (thefts). However, let it be assured that the MPD will intensify its operations and will be setting up more checkpoints to curb, if not eradicate (car thefts) in our district,” Po said. – With Rey Galupo