Four suspects in RP’s biggest hijacking case arrested — DILG

Four suspects in one of the biggest highway robberies ever to be staged in the country have been arrested, Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes announced Tuesday.

Reyes confirmed STAR publisher Max V. Soliven’s exposé gathered from his own sources that elements of the National Anti-Crime Task Force (NACTF) were hot on the trail of the robbers who hijacked a FedEx vehicle on its way to deliver P30.5 million worth of Maxim microchips in Cavite last month and that four suspects were in police custody.

"I will not disappoint you," Reyes declared in his speech during the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC)’s "DILG Night" at the Hotel Intercontinental Manila’s grand ballroom in Makati City after being asked to verify the arrest.

He said 10 percent of the loot, or microchips worth P3 million, has been recovered and more is expected to be retrieved in the coming weeks.

"We are still pursuing the case and we expect to arrest more in the coming weeks," said Reyes who was guest speaker at the MOPC affair.

Criminal charges against the suspects are now being readied, he added.

Soliven, MOPC chairman, noted it was very good news to know that his sources had given him almost "exact" information although they had said the NACTF recovered 50 percent.

Joint teams of the NACTF, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) and the Cavite provincial police arrested four suspects in the Dec. 17 crime, Reyes said.

The anti-crime czar said the highway robbers will be presented to the public soon.

Reyes said the cargo belonged to Maxim’s Enterprise and was being delivered by a FedEx truck from Dasmariñas in Cavite to the airport when it was seized by armed hijackers.

Reyes also reported the past year’s accomplishments by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Bureau of Fire Protection.

At the same event, he was also peppered with questions from reporters from various international and local media outfits on different topics, including his political plans.

Reyes said he was not closing his door to running for public office in the next national elections.

MOPC president Antonio "Tony" Lopez, publisher and editor of BizNewsAsia, chaired the open forum and asked Reyes pointed questions.

After sharing jokes with Lopez, MOPC director Babe Romualdez, Soliven and the panelists and recalling the last time he had agreed to be guest of the MOPC two years ago, Reyes also briefed the media on DILG’s goals for 2006.