Thursday, July 31, 2008 Car dealer posts P40T bail
A CAR dealer arrested Monday dawn for possessing a stolen van posted bail before the Cebu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) yesterday.
Joseph Burt Cañete, a married 34-year-old car dealer, was escorted to the RTC yesterday for the filing of a criminal information against him. He was charged with violation of the Anti-Fencing Law of 1979 in relation to the Anti-Carnapping Act of 1972.
For having been found to “buy, possess, keep and/or display for sale” a stolen Hyundai Starex van worth P1.4 million, Cañete had to pay P40,000 to be released on bail.
SPO2 Norman Suva and PO2 Ted Bacolod, operatives of the Anti-Carnapping Section of District Police Intelligence and Operation Unit of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), issued a joint affidavit against Cañete.
The two said a confidential agent, who is connected with a carnapping syndicate, informed them on July 15 that some vehicles stolen at Quezon City would be brought to Cebu City for selling.
The syndicate was transporting a Hyundai Starex van with a Land Transportation Office (LTO) license plate number ZKZ 988, the agent said.
Suva’s team checked and discovered that a van with plate number ZKZ 988 had indeed been reported stolen on April 21 this year, while it was parked.
On July 21, the agent told Suva that the plate number had been changed. Thus, when the van entered Cebu aboard a ship that day, it bore the plate number ZJM 154.
Suva’s team checked with the LTO and found that there was no record on file for a plate number ZJM 154.
Two days later, on July 23, a man later identified as Cañete took the van from the port and brought it to Cañete Compound at Rivaridge Subd., Brgy. Tisa, Cebu City.
Cañete himself is said to own the compound.
Suva and Bacolod alleged in their affidavit that their team also saw “several motor vehicles with suspicious plate numbers” in the compound, as well as other vehicles that did not have plate numbers at all.
When Cañete tried driving the van out of the compound at 4:00 a.m. last Monday, Suva and his team, along with Tisa tanods Prudencio Caburray and Carlito Binondo, apprehended him.
They served Cañete a search warrant issued by Quezon City RTC judge Thelma A. Ponferrada.
Prosecutor Cellona said he could not charge Cañete with carnapping because the vehicle was stolen in Quezon City, not in Cebu City. Thus, he could only charge Cañete with possessing and using the stolen vehicle.
Rufe Paul Legorio, who is one of Cañete’s lawyers, declined to comment on the incident, saying the car dealer’s family wanted to “keep mum” about the issue.
The Police Regional Office (PRO) 7, meanwhile, will help the Quezon City Police District in conducting a background investigation on Cañete.
Police Deputy Regional Director for Administration Federico Terte said they would be looking into the allegations of illegal activities against Cañete.
Meanwhile, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he prefers importation of used vehicles because it facilitates technology transfer, more than bringing in brand new vehicles for assembly here.
He said this shortly after Quezon City Police District operatives raided an area in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City Monday night and seized 13 “stolen” vehicles.
Osmeña admitted he was “a little bit” alarmed of the raid, saying it will be a source of shame for Cebuanos if the police keep on finding questionable vehicles here.
He acknowledged, though, that Cebu serves as a transshipment point for smuggled and stolen vehicles.
“Cebu is a natural place to ship cars because all the shipping lines are here,” the mayor said.
Osmeña said he is not really familiar with the ways how smugglers sneak in stolen or questionable vehicles, but will fully support efforts to stop such activity.
“But I’m in favor of importing used cars. It’s cheaper for the country…. And there is more technology transfer in importing used cars compared to those from the assembly lines,” the mayor said.
“And you help the small guy earn a little money. New vehicles? You must assemble the brand new parts here. In used cars, you have to learn everything to fix
everything,” he added.
He said that because new cars are simply assembled here, Filipinos do not really advance in their learning.
Those who import used vehicles and recondition them, on the other hand, have to learn “a little bit of everything,” from fixing the seats to the transmission system to the
paint job.
Doing so also helps our economy because “when we bring in vehicles, we lose dollars, which we send abroad.”
“Bringing in brand new vehicles puts a strain on our peso,” the mayor said.
He expressed concern that if more and more vehicles get stolen, the government might resort back to implementing the anti-carnapping clearance (Ancar), which is “bad for the economy” of Visayas and Mindanao.
The Cebu Auto Dealers Association (CADA), meanwhile, said they already warned authorities since last year about stolen vehicles proliferating in Cebu.
CADA President Jose Manuel Cuenco told radio dyLA in an interview that aside from his firm, Toyota Cebu Inc., Hyundai issued the same warning to the public.
Cuenco told radio dyLA that stealing cars thrives because some LTO officials register these illegal vehicles, even though the applicants cannot submit the legal requirements for registration. (KAB/RHM/EOB/JST)
