Tacurong police chief probed for ‘selling’ Pentagon car

TACURONG CITY — This city’s police chief is now the subject of an investigation for allegedly selling one of three impounded getaway vehicles of the Pentagon kidnapping gang.

The Mindanao Cross, a Catholic newspaper in Cotabato City, reported over the weekend that the Provincial Internal Affairs Service (PIAS) of the Sultan Kudarat police is probing Chief Inspector Jaime Guadilla for having recently sold the vehicle to a certain Jun Velarde.

The Pentagon gang used the questionable vehicle, which the city police supposedly kept as evidence, in the abduction of a gasoline station owner here last year.

Senior Superintendent Leodegario Bentayo, acting PIAS chief, said in his initial report to Superintendent Abubakar Mangelen, Sultan Kudarat police director, that Guadilla also allegedly had a hand in the sale of the engines and other parts of the two other impounded getaway vehicles of the Pentagon.

The kidnapping gang used the two vehicles in the abductions of two Tacurong traders about two years ago.

The provincial police earlier had charged Guadilla for usurpation of authority for issuing last February, on the behest of a local livestock trader, a shipment clearance for more than a dozen head of cattle bound for Metro Manila.

Under Presidential Decree 533, also known as the anti-cattle-rustling law, only the provincial police director (Mangelen) can issue permits for livestock shipments.

Worse, the clearance Guadilla had issued was intended for a herd of cattle originating from Sultan Kudarat’s Lambayong town, which is outside his jurisdiction.

"He (Guadilla) has been missing since last March 26 after these cases were filed against him," the Mindanao Cross quoted Mangelen as saying.

This city’s business and religious communities called on Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Mendoza last week to intervene and immediately replace Guadilla.

They expressed fears that the city folk might lose their confidence in the police if Guadilla is not relieved from his post despite the charges against him.

They earlier had criticized Senior Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot, Region 12 police director, for reportedly ignoring the provincial police’s recommendation for Guadilla’s immediate relief.