3 Manila cops, 3 civilians face car theft raps

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Police have filed charges of car theft and fencing against three Manila policemen and three civilians who were caught in an entrapment along the North Luzon Expressway last Saturday.

Charged were SPO4 Porfirio Divina and PO3s Edwin de la Cruz and Jordan Villanueva, all assigned with the Western Police District’s Station 3 in Quiapo, Manila.

Also named in the police complaint were Hency Directo, Leslie Tamargo and Rogelio Basilio.

Superintendent Elmer Soria, Central Luzon chief of the Traffic Management Group (TMG), said the six were apprehended when they tried to sell for P150,000 an allegedly stolen Corolla Altis (with license plate XHX 318) without pertinent documents to TMG agent PO2 Bernardo Bautista.

Soria said Bautista arranged the transaction with Tamargo and they agreed to meet at a Petron gas station along the expressway.

Directo, he said, was the one driving the car, and the three lawmen escorted the three civilian suspects.

The suspects yielded two 9-mm pistols, a caliber .45 Glock pistol and two police identification cards.