Cops eye Bundol Gang's fences

MANILA, Philippines - The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is conducting surveillance operations on buyers of vehicles and items stolen by the Bundol Gang, an official said yesterday.

“My men are now closely watching the buyers of stolen goods. We are in the thick of efforts to pin them down based on evidence we gather,” Superintendent Remus Medina, head of the NCRPO’s regional police intelligence and operations unit (RPIOU), said in an interview.

He said the buyers will be charged for violating the anti-fencing law.

Medina said alleged gang leader Allan Aristorenas and his three reported cohorts gave them the names of their fences, but he refused to reveal their identities until they are caught.

“The balikbayan boxes and other items like laptops are being sold at lower prices in Pasay City while the stolen vehicles were sold and cannibalized in Tondo, Manila,” he said.

Police have filed carjacking, abduction, illegal possession of firearms and frustrated homicide charges against Aristorenas and alleged gang men Robert Bonzon; Felimon Borillo, 29; and Jeffrey Martinez, 25, before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The four men were arrested last week in separate operations in Parañaque City and Pasay City.

The gang men said Ruben Frogoso’s black Toyota Fortuner, taken at a car wash shop in Muntinlupa City, was ready for a buyer when it was recovered at the parking lot of a public market in Tondo.

NCRPO chief Director Nicanor Bartolome said they have coordinated with the Firearms and Explosive Division of the Philippine National Police to trace the owners of the two 12-gauge shotguns recovered from the suspects.

Bartolome said they are checking whether the seized firearms belong to the security guards of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, who the gang claimed had given them tips on potential victims – usually balikbayans arriving at the airport.

The gang members claimed they would wait near the Nayong Pilipino in a stolen vehicle and would follow the vehicle of their intended targets. They would bump (bundol) it from behind or block its path.

Once the target vehicle came to a stop, the gang would kidnap the vehicle’s occupants, take their belongings and dump the victims in deserted areas.

The NCRPO attributed at least 12 such robberies to the Bundol Gang since May this year.