Cabbie wanted for dragging student arrested

Quezon City policemen arrested yesterday a taxi driver whose vehicle allegedly dragged a female student who boarded his vehicle last week.

But suspect Primitivo Sarmiento insisted he did not intend to drag the victim. He said he drove off, not knowing that part of her body was still in his taxicab.

However, the victim, a student at the University of Santo Tomas, positively identified Sarmiento as the taxi driver whose vehicle she boarded early morning on Nov. 22.

Sarmiento’s physical appearance also matched a sketch released by the police over the weekend, said Superintendent Antonio Yarra of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.

Yarra said Sarmiento was arrested as he was parking the vehicle at the garage of the taxicab’s operator in Barangay Ugong in Valenzuela City just before his shift ended at 6 a.m. yesterday.

The police official admitted they had difficulty locating the vehicle after they did not get any information from the Land Transportation Office and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board using the plate number TWC-897 seen attached to the vehicle and the “KUL” marking on the taxicab.

“But an informant gave us information on the plate and location of the vehicle,” Yarra told reporters.

According to Yarra, the vehicle already had another plate, TWN-875, and the “KUL” marking had been replaced with “AM Taxi.”

Yarra said they have yet to verify how the license plate TWC-987, which was originally traced to another vehicle, was attached to Sarmiento’s taxicab.

Initially, Yarra said charges of robbery with serious physical injuries could be charged against Sarmiento.

On the day the incident happened, the victim boarded the taxicab at UST in Manila after attending a late-night activity. Upon reaching their house in Sta. Mesa Heights in Quezon City, the victim handed to the cabbie P1,000, the only bill left with her, to pay for her fare.

With the victim’s mother waiting at the gate, the driver claimed the victim gave him P60. The victim insisted she gave the cabbie P1,000, prompting her mother to try to seek help from the village watchmen.

The driver sped off with the student still inside the vehicle, allegedly even threatening to kill her. The victim said she tried to jump out of the vehicle, but the driver grabbed her. She said he later let go, then sped away when she landed on the pavement. She sustained scrapes on her hands and knees.