Manila New Car Theft Capital

By: Trish Lameyra

Manila, the country’s seat of power, has taken the tag “car theft capital” of the Philippines from Quezon City, Highway Patrol Group (HPG) said Tuesday, October 1.

According to HPG spokesperson Superintendent Edwin Butacan, Manila was recorded to have the most car theft cases among any other areas in the metropolis since February of this year.

“That has been the trend since February. Manila now tops the list of areas where car theft cases are rampant,” Butacan stated in a news briefing at Camp Crame.

Butacan said that in August alone, the city has noted 19 stolen vehicles compared to nine in Quezon City.

The HPG recorded 50 car thefts during the same month accounting to a 60% decrease in last year’s record of 127 stolen vehicles.

Of the 50 missing vehicles, 26 were motorcycles, while the others were Mitsubishi Montero, Nissan Urvan, Toyota Vios and Toyota Grandia.

“That’s because motorcycles are easy to steal. At the same time, it’s also difficult to recover stolen motorcycles,” Butacan added.

The former HPG director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, now the director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) helped the police curb operations of car theft syndicates with his mandate to deploy more patrol units to Quezon City, Butacan added.

Butacan concluded that the number of car theft cases could be lessened if the HPG police operations focus more on a specific area.