NPD busts ‘Bawas Gang’

Agents of the Northern Police District (NPD) intelligence unit busted a "Bawas Gang" engaged in pilferage from cargo trucks plying the North and South Expressways with the arrest of the gang’s alleged leader and two members during a raid on their lair over the weekend in Malabon City.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Vidal Querol identified the suspects as Edgardo Fernandez, 31, a native of Aklan and resident of Block 38, Lot 18, Martiniko street, Barangay Longos, Malabon City, the gang’s alleged leader, Junior Rebato, 34, of 116 Dayao street, Balut, Tondo, and Daniel de Guzman, 23, of Block 11, Lot 105, Phase 2, Area 3, Barangay Longos, Malabon City.

The suspects were apprehended at about 3:30 a.m. Friday while reportedly unloading rolls of stolen Fiberlite Dropwire owned by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co. at their safehouse along Martiniko street in Barangay Longos.

Chief Inspector Sotero Ramos Jr., chief of the NPD-District Police Intelligence Unit (DPIU), said that 15 more boxes of locally manufactured assorted cigarettes amounting to some P40,000 were also seized from the suspects’ safehouse. Police also impounded a red Suzuki van with plate number TJM 687, the vehicle reportedly used by the group in their operations.

Ramos said the suspects filched the wires with PLDT markings from a cargo truck parked along the service road in between Bicutan, Taguig and Sucat, Parañaque at about 1:30 a.m. Friday while the assorted cigarettes were taken last Aug. 6 from a cargo truck along Osmeña Highway in Pasay City.

Interviewed in his cell, Fernandez, who has a standing warrant of arrest for theft issued by the Malabon City Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC), said that his group’s modus operandi was to travel along the North and South Expressways during night-time to scout for parked delivery trucks. The items were then brought to a Pasay City businessman Fernandez identified only a certain Danny. Danny and the "Bawas Gang" were in the "trade" for more than a year already, he said.

Charges were being readied against the suspects while police are tracking down Danny, a businessman who reportedly owns one of the nightclubs in Pasay City.