30 LTO men, cops charged for car theft since 2001

MANILA, Philippines - The filing of charges against Land Transportation Office (LTO) and Philippine National Police (PNP) officials involved in carjacking activities started as early as 2001, according to the Highway Patrol Group (HPG).

About 30 LTO and PNP officials and personnel are facing criminal and administrative charges for alleged involvement in car theft.

HPG director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina said charges were filed against those who were found to have connived in falsifying registration of stolen vehicles.

In several cases, officials who are mostly heads of LTO district offices from Visayas and Mindanao facilitated the registration of vehicles stolen from Luzon.

“With the prosecution of public officials actually and truly involved in this criminal activity, it is expected that carnapping activities (made possible through registration fraud) will be minimized if not totally eradicated as the marketability of stolen vehicles would certainly be made difficult,” Espina said, adding that authorities would continue to file charges against erring LTO and PNP officials.

He said the PNP has been pushing for the amendment of Republic Act 6539 and Presidential Decree 532 making carjacking, highway robbery/brigandage, including the possession of stolen vehicles and falsification of their documents a non-bailable offense.

Another measure, according to Espina, is to make it unlawful for insurance companies to resell totally wrecked vehicles together with their registration documents while the LTO should archive registration documents of totally wrecked vehicles and never renew it.

He said he will seek the re-imposition of shipping permits prior to sea transport.

“The clearance requirement from HPG for the transfer of vehicles from one island to another through ferry services was stopped on May 11, 2001. As a result for the non-issuance of clearances, it was observed that carnapped vehicles in Metro Manila were shipped to either Visayas or Mindanao,” Espina said.

In 2010 alone, out of the 212 recovered carjacked vehicles by HPG in Visayas and Mindanao, 48 were stolen in Metro Manila.

Rosales hits irresponsible report

Meanwhile, Director Roberto Rosales welcomed any investigation into allegations that he is the “protector” of another police officer linked to the Dominguez carjack gang.

This developed even as military intelligence officers denied yesterday receiving a report tagging him as the protector of the group.

“I want a face to face meeting with my accuser who made the report. He should present evidence linking me to any wrongdoing,” said Rosales, head of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation (DIPO) for Northern Luzon.

He said the government official who made and leaked the report wanted to “besmirch my name or destroy my reputation.”

“Those who made the report made it public without validating them first. They are irresponsible,” he said.

Rosales pointed out that Superintendent Napoleon Cauyan was never assigned under his command, and the latter was on a floating status when he volunteered information regarding big-time carjacking syndicates.

Rosales said he ordered his intelligence operatives to validate Cauyan’s information and started working on them when found it was A-1 information.

It was Cauyan’s information that the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) used to bust a syndicate at the LTO some years ago.

“We arrested two LTO employees who were aiding carjackers in registering stolen vehicles, and confiscated bundles of certificate of registration and official receipts at stalls near the LTO compound,” Rosales said.

Cauyan was also responsible for the arrest of suspected casino financiers involved in the sale and pawning of stolen vehicles, and the arrest of a certain Chua who yielded a Range Rover bearing license plate No. 6 intended for Cabinet secretaries.

Rosales said they also arrested Manila and Quezon City policemen involved in motorcycle thievery and his records as chief of the NCRPO and Manila Police District (MPD) would belie charges that he is Cauyan’s coddler.

“For me to take cognizance of reports that Cauyan is involved in activities in the past does not mean I’m coddling him,” he stressed.

Rosales strongly suspects that those besmirching his name are afraid of him landing the top PNP post.

“Maybe, I’m being considered as the next PNP chief that is why they are destroying my reputation,” he said with a chuckle.

AFP: No such intel report

The story that came out on Sunday tagging Rosales as protector of a car theft syndicate allegedly came from an intelligence source, according to a major broadsheet (not The STAR).

But Armed forces deputy chief for intelligence Maj. Gen. Francisco Cruz Jr. said he never received such report from military intelligence units.

“There is no such report. Sensitive reports like that are normally submitted to me,” Cruz told The STAR in a phone interview.   

He said intelligence reports should be validated before they are released.

“These reports should be verified if they are true or not. We cannot rely on rumors,” he said.

In a text message, Cruz said the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) had also denied receiving such report.

Cruz’s office supervises the operations of the ISAFP.

The report said the intelligence information has been forwarded to the office of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo. 

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr., on the other hand, said that the military is not directly involved in addressing car theft.

“In the first place, it is not our turf. This involves a car theft syndicate and we are only in support to the PNP on this effort,” Mabanta told radio dzBB.

When asked if the newspaper that published the story should apologize to the AFP, Mabanta said: “I think it is not at my level. For our part, there was no harm done. It is really that of Director Rosales.”

PNP wants Rosales, Cauyan to shed light

The PNP said it will ask Rosales and Cauyan to shed light on the matter, according to PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz.

Cruz said the PNP would also request other people with information on car theft syndicates to help them in their campaign to put a stop to car theft incidents.

“We have to validate the intelligence information first. We have to weigh the available evidence then make our move based on airtight data and not rely on hearsay,” he said.

Cruz said the PNP strategy is to look at the big picture, rather than just focus on the investigation of people alleged to be involved in carjacking.

The PNP spokesman said that their “total approach” in the anti-carjacking campaign involves strengthening inter-agency

coordination, particularly with the LTO. He said the PNP is strictly reviewing the issuance of clearances in the movement of vehicles from one area to another. – Non Alquitran, Alexis Romero, Dino Balabo