Manhunt on for Padilla carjack gang's buyers

MANILA, Philippines -  Operatives of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) are hunting down the buyers of luxury vehicles reportedly stolen by a gang allegedly led by slain carjack suspect Ivan Padilla, an official said yesterday.

Members of the Padilla gang who are under police custody identified the stolen cars’ buyers as Grace, Anthony and Allan.

Superintendent Maristelo Manalo, chief of the NCRPO’s anti-carjacking unit, claimed it was Padilla who personally negotiated with the buyers, making it difficult for the arrested gang members to identify them.

“Padilla would call them up on his cell phone and they usually met in their rendezvous point where negotiation for the sale of stolen vehicles took place,” said Manalo.

According to gang members Dale Alimagno, 22, and Glenn del Castillo, 31, Padilla usually met with Grace at malls in Taguig and Pasay; Anthony at Filinvest, Quezon City and Allan in Makati City.

“Aside from hunting down the other gang members, we are also training our sights on the buyers of stolen cars which were named by the arrested members of the Padilla gang,” Manalo said in an interview.

Manalo said they recovered at least five of the 15 vehicles stolen by the Padilla gang since June, including a Toyota Camry owned by former foreign affairs secretary Roberto Romulo and a Volvo of the father of actor Derek Ramsey.

Alimagno, Del Castillo and another gang member, Mark Inducil, are cooperating fully with the NCRPO to catch other members of the gang, including four women who spot potential victims.

The NCRPO alleged that Padilla stole vehicles and used them in other carjacking operations to avoid detection.

Padilla, who allegedly shot it out with NCRPO policemen, suffered two gunshot wounds in the head but was still alive when lawmen rushed him to the Ospital ng Makati, where attending doctors declared him dead on arrival.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Internal Affairs Service (IAS) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) are conducting parallel investigations of Padilla’s death amid claims by his relatives that he was “summarily executed.”