Cops clueless on missing Crame staff car

MANILA, Philippines - Despite a high-level investigation, the police are still clueless on how a police staff car went missing right inside the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame some two months ago.

The investigation into the incident became more muddled and confusing since the people involved, including Senior Superintendent Glenn de la Torre and 38 other policemen, have different versions of how the red Toyota Innova (NOS-135) could have gone missing.

Senior Superintendent Ramon Apolinario, officer-in-charge of the PNP-Police Security Protection Group (PSPG), said the vehicle had been assigned to De la Torre as head of the PSPG-Protection and Escort Unit.

“Senior Superintendent De la Torre claimed he parked the vehicle in front of the PSPG office but hours later he could not find the vehicle,” Apolinario said.

Although De la Torre’s statement was corroborated by another police officer, Apolinario pointed out several policemen had claimed otherwise.

He said several policemen claimed they did not see the vehicle on the day De la Torre had supposedly parked it.

“We are more inclined to believe that the vehicle was stolen outside the camp. We cannot immediately agree with De la Torre,” Apolinario said.

Apolinario said all the 38 police personnel were inside the PSPG building at the time the vehicle was reported missing.

They were instructed to give their statements and undergo polygraph test. The result of the tests has yet to be submitted.

Apolinario said they checked the video footage of Camp Crame’s closed circuit television at the gates during the time the vehicle was last seen.

It turned out the CCTV cameras were not working, he said.

Apolinario said the cameras at Gate 1 of Camp Crame fronting EDSA were closed on June 19, which was a holiday.

Apolinario said they reported the missing vehicle to the PNP-Highway Patrol Group but admitted they did not follow up on the incident.

“We thought reporting the incident through phone is enough,” he said.

HPG spokesman Superintendent Edwin Butacan said a certain PO3 Balau-as reported the incident last June 20.

Butacan said Balau-as called up the HPG to report their staff car was stolen in front of the PSPG office on June 19.

The PSPG office is located in the eastern part of the compound of Camp Crame.

Butacan said records indicated the PSPG personnel made no effort to follow up the incident.

He said the disappearance of the vehicle was almost forgotten until the Quezon City Police District recovered the “missing” vehicle from a group of car thieves last Aug. 4 or 46 days after it went missing.

Investigators suggested the vehicle could have been stolen outside of Camp Crame but there are others who claimed otherwise.

Critics said the vehicle could have been taken right inside the police camp and efforts had been made not to make public the incident so as to avoid embarrassment.