Teen carjack suspect makes it to PNP units’ ‘target list’

MANILA, Philippines - Teenager Mark Joseph Reyes has become so notorious among police officers for his alleged involvement in several carjackings that his name is included in the “target list” of different police units, officials said yesterday.

From 2011 to 2013, Reyes was tagged in at least five separate car theft cases, said Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao, deputy director for administration of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD).

Following his arrest in Quezon City last week, the 19-year-old Reyes was ordered committed to a jail in Olongapo for yet another carjacking case, Pagdilao said.

According to Pagdilao, Judge Jose Bautista issued the commitment order on Reyes, directing the QCPD to bring the teenager to the Olongapo City jail for a carjacking case filed against him and a man named Richell Sibug.

Chief Inspector Rolando Lorenzo, Jr., head of the QCPD’s anti-car theft unit, said the teenager is among those on the target list of the National Capital Region Police Office and the Highway Patrol Group.

On the radar

Reyes’ father, Mark Lester, is said to be behind the group’s operation, with the father and son first figuring on the police radar in 2011, during the carjacking of a black Toyota Fortuner of a Social Security System executive.

Reyes, then only 16, was left behind by his father, who allegedly drove off following a commotion during the taking of the Fortuner.

That same year, the teenager was arrested for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition in Barangay Bahay Toro, said QCPD director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano. 

Pagdilao said the charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition were supposed to be non-bailable offenses but since Reyes was a minor at that time, he was apparently released to the custody of his parents.

According to Albano, a man had come forward after Reyes’ second arrest in 2011, claiming it was the teenager who, along with two companions, took his Toyota Hi-lux in Pampanga.

In May this year, Reyes and a certain Christopher Ducot allegedly posed as Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency operatives and carjacked a Ford Escape in Cubao, Albano said.

His latest arrest involved the theft of a Honda Civic, which was earlier sold to a woman in Manila, on Aug. 27.

A relative of the new owner saw it parked in front of an auto shop near Banawe street. Albano said Reyes was seen in possession of the stolen sedan. The teenager even allegedly replaced the license plates of the stolen car with a new pair to conceal its true identity.

The new pair of plates attached to it was also stolen from another Civic in Barangay Sta. Teresita, also in Quezon City, police said.