Probers eye 2 cars in failed kidnapping in Pasay

MANILA, Philippines - Two cars that were supposed to be used in a Dec. 20, 2010 drug bust in Pasay City may have been employed in a failed kidnapping of an Indian national that day, investigators said yesterday.

Pasay investigators are trying to establish whether two vehicles listed in the coordination form of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) anti-drug unit are the same as those described by Manjinder “James” Kumar and a Pasay policeman who was shot by Kumar’s would-be kidnappers when he came to the Indian’s aid.

City police chief Senior Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton said Kumar and Senior Inspector Renato Apolinario separately described two of the vehicles used by the armed suspects as a Honda Civic and a dark Toyota Vios with no license plates.

Cuaton said the identification by Kumar and Apolinario of Chief Inspector Edwin Faycho and two other policemen are strong enough to pin down the QCPD lawmen in the kidnap try, “but the identification of the vehicles would help strengthen our case.”

The Pasay City police filed kidnapping with murder against Faycho and the two other policemen, a civilian agent of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and four Indian nationals for the killing of Kumar’s associates, Ferdinand Ret and Andy Bryan Ngie.

Cuaton said the investigation is ongoing to identify other Quezon City police officers involved in the incident.

The STAR obtained a document showing that 10 vehicles listed by Faycho in his coordination form either have no records with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) or their license plates turned out to be issued to other vehicles.

Cuaton is coordinating with the LTO to determine the authenticity of the document so they could include it as evidence in court.

Among the vehicles listed by Faycho in his coordination form was a light blue Toyota Vios armed with conduction sticker TC 9143 and a blue Honda Civic with license plate UKM-281.

QCPD director Chief Superintendent Benjardi Mantele ordered an inventory of all vehicles used not only by his dissolved anti-drug unit but also other units to determine whether they were among those listed in Faycho’s coordination form. “I’m checking and locating the said vehicles listed in the coordination document,” Mantele said.