P4.5-M bounty up for car theft syndicate leader

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has put up a total of P4.5-million reward for the arrest of Ryan “Baktin” Yu, tagged as the leader of a car theft syndicate operating in Mindanao.

Yu is reportedly behind the series of car thefts in key areas in Mindanao, including the cities of Davao, General Santos and Butuan and their environs.

“I’m putting up P2 million if he is captured alive and then another P2 million if he is captured dead. And another P500,000 for anyone who could bring Yu’s head before me. So, all in all, it will be a total of P4.5 million,” Duterte told The STAR.

Duterte also warned Yu not to return to Davao City, as he would surely suffer the consequences of his criminal acts.

At least 30 stolen vehicles have so far been recovered from Yu’s Baktin group by joint elements of the Philippine National Police and the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) in Regions 11, 12 and Caraga in separate raids this week here and in General Santos and Butuan.

Joint elements of the Davao City police and the HPG recovered on Monday night at least 14 vehicles believed to have been stolen in a warehouse owned by Yu in Sarphil Subdivision, Barangay Wilfredo Aquino this city.

Superintendent Ronald de la Rosa, Davao City police chief, said among the vehicles recovered from the warehouse were a Nissan Urvan, two Toyota Vios, a Nissan Bongo, a Mitsubishi Lancer, a Toyota Avanza (with license plate FNL-367), a Nissan Bentre (KER-501), two Nissan Navarra, a Toyota Hi-Lux, a Honda Civic, a Chevrolet Cruze, and a Mitsubishi Strada.

De la Rosa said the raid on Yu’s warehouse was covered by a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 13 here.

He said the search warrant was only for 13 vehicles, but the raid yielded 14 vehicles.

De la Rosa said only one of the 14 vehicles was initially confirmed to have been stolen.

Meanwhile, a certain Ibrahim Buog, who lost his Toyota Hi-Lux near Holy Cross of Agdao here last Jan. 15, found the license plate of his car in Yu’s warehouse. The plate though has been cut into three pieces.

De la Rosa said all the other vehicles will be subjected to forensic tests for verification purposes.