QC police, TMG closing in on car theft syndicate

Anti-car theft operatives of the Central Police District (CPD) and the Traffic Management Group (TMG) said yesterday they are closing in on a syndicate operating at commercial centers and residential areas in Quezon City.

"We have already identified the group," Superintendent Cesar Tanagan, operations officer of the CPD anti-theft task force, told The STAR.

The special task force, headed by Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, was created by CPD director Chief Superintendent Nicasio Radovan to complement the efforts of the TMG, the main police unit tasked to go after car thieves.

Tanagan said the continuing crackdown has resulted in the recovery of at least eight out of 35 vehicles stolen last month in Quezon City.

The CPD has intensified foot patrols at commercial centers and residential areas where residents park their vehicles on the street.

He said the area with most number of car thefts recorded was Teacher’s Village in Diliman.

Police statistics showed that at least 80 percent of stolen vehicles are those parked overnight outside homes while the others are those parked at commercial centers or forcibly taken from owners.

In a report to Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Radovan said among the areas being monitored by the police is the town of Apalit, Pampanga, particularly in Barangay Kabalangan, which for years has been known as the dumping ground of stolen vehicles in Metro Manila.

The barangay, according to Radovan, is the "butcher site" of vehicles from Metro Manila.

Stolen vehicles are also reportedly being brought to Mindanao and end up in the hands of political warlords.

Those taken to provinces get new registration papers, courtesy of unscrupulous Land Transportation Office employees and are then sold to unsuspecting buyers.