BASAG KOTSE GANG: ‘SORRY’

January 31, 2010

BASAG KOTSE GANG: ‘SORRY’

Police chief relates how they busted criminal syndicate

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

THE BASAG Kotse suspects arrested by the Jaro police in Iloilo City apologized to authorities after they were cornered in a hotel last week.

C/Insp. Orly Gabinete, Jaro police chief, said Benjamin Salvacion, 38, of Arvin Morilla, 28; Francisco Reyes, 32; and Jade Cariño, 29, all of General Santos City; and Faustino Lumaniog, 38, of Camarines Sur sought their forgiveness.

The five suspected car robbers were collared inside Room 202 of Moritz Hotel on Lopez Jaena Street, Jaro Wednesday after hitting four cars the day before.

The group call themselves the Happy Go Lucky group, according to the Jaro police.

“They were apologetic when we entered their room. They said, ‘Sorry sir, sorry sir’,” Gabinete told Councilor Perla Zulueta, host of Serbisyo Publiko over Sky Cable channel 13 Sunday morning.

Gabinete said the suspected robbers were surprised to see a horde of police officers outside their room but offered no resistance to authorities.

How did the Jaro police track down the suspects who are believed to be behind Basag Kotse incidents in Western Visayas?

Gabinete said they were able to trace the blue Isuzu Trooper used by the suspects in their operations through witnesses near two car robberies in Jaro.

The police also possessed a cartographic sketch of Lumaniog which they showed to the witnesses.

The Jaro police then warned all police stations in Iloilo City and neighboring towns to watch out for the Isuzu Trooper registration plate number GHR-257.

Checkpoints in the fringes of the city reported that they have not spotted the car, prompting the city cops to intensify their search in the metropolis.

Shortly before midnight Wednesday, the police spotted the Trooper parked outside Moritz Hotel.

Investigators later found out that Lumaniog signed his own name in the hotel’s guest registration card.

Gabinete said he posed as hotel personnel and called Room 202 to check if the suspects were inside the room.

The police, with assistance from the hotel management, went to the room and arrested the suspects.

“We knocked on the door and the suspects voluntarily opened the door. They were surprised. They also voluntarily opened their belongings and the car where we found the stolen laptops and other items,” Gabinete said.

BAIL

Gabinete said the suspects might be released from detention if the court grants their petition to post bail.

The Jaro police and three Basag Kotse victims have filed charges for robbery with use of force upon things, malicious mischief, and possession of counterfeit bills against the five suspects.

Gabinete said each suspect will have to post P120,000 for their temporary freedom.

“We hope that other victims will come out to file charges against them so our efforts will not go to waste,” he said.

Gabinete said victims of the gang in Bacolod City, Dumaguete and other places should file cases against them to prevent them from being released.

Gabinete said they were able to draw the “organizational chart” of the Basag Kotse gang but he refused to name the leaders of the group.

The police is also verifying the so-called “handler” or coddler of car robbers in Iloilo City.

Earlier, C/Supt. Isagani Cuevas, PNP regional director, said the suspects’ handler is a native of Mindanao who now resides in the city.

Cuevas did not name the alleged handler pending their investigation. He said the protector will be arrested if a case is filed against that person.

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