3 cops caught driving ‘kolorum’ PUVs

MANILA, Philippines - Three policemen were among those caught driving “kolorum” public utility vehicles as part of a crackdown on operators and drivers of such PUVs conducted by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), officials said yesterday.

Superintendent Reynaldo Ramirez, head of the QCPD’s District Special Operations Unit, said the driver’s licenses of SPO1 Ricky Fernando of the Philippine National Police Maritime Group, PO3 Eduardo Ducanes of the Crime Laboratory and PO2 Russel Sangoy of the QCPD Station 1 were confiscated following the operation along EDSA, Panay and Quezon Avenues on Wednesday last week.

Ramirez said Fernando and Ducanes each drove an Asian utility vehicle without license plates and plied the EDSA route without franchises.

As for Sangoy, he was apprehended while driving an FX taxicab without a franchise at the corner of Araneta and Quezon Avenues.

QCPD deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Neri Ilagan said the operations were part of simultaneous campaigns all over Metro Manila following reports that some PUVs were being used by robbery groups to trap and rob passengers.

Recently, Ramirez’s unit apprehended a cabbie and his cohort who were accused of robbing female passengers on separate occasions. One of the female victims said she was allegedly molested by the suspects.

According to Ilagan, the danger in riding these vehicles was that the operator or driver cannot shoulder the expenses of passengers in case of accidents.