Agent, ex-RHPU cop sued over “stolen” vehicle

CEBU, Philippines - For allegedly selling a stolen vehicle, a confidential agent  and a former custodian at the Regional Highway Patrol Unit-7 in Cebu City are facing a criminal complaint before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office.

Assisted by the National Bureau of Investigation-7, Reynaldo Olmeda Tan yesterday filed a carnapping complaint against Mario Real Saycon and SPO4 Edwin Galan.

Tan, a businessman based in Iligan City, alleged that last June 8, a Toyota Revo he bought from Saycon, a resident of Talamban, Cebu City, through online shopping site AyosDito.ph, was confiscated by RHPU-Iligan for being a carnapped vehicle.

Based on RHPU records, the Toyota Revo was allegedly stolen sometime in 2002 in Quezon City.

Tan said that based on his exchanges with Saycon during the transaction, the latter claimed to be an RHPU-7 confidential agent.

Tan said that after Saycon left his contact details and the mode of payment was agreed upon on the shopping site, he then closed the deal and brought the vehicle in Iligan City during the last week of March 2014.

Tan said that because he believed Saycon was connected with RPHU he did not bother counterchecking the vehicle’s identification after paying P230,000.

However, when Tan went to the RHPU-10 office in Iligan to secure clearance for his vehicle and to transfer the registration under his name, he was told that his Toyota Revo was a carnapped vehicle.

Tan said he then called Saycon and Galan but the two did not answer his calls.

Tan included Galan in the complaint after Saycon told him to approach the policeman if he (Tan) has problems with the vehicle.

Galan was among the RPHU-7 officials who are facing multiple murder and frustrated murder charges before the Cebu Prosecutor’s Office for the death of lawyer Noel Archival and his companions.

Archival, his driver Alejandro Jayme, and his bodyguard Candido Miñoza were killed during an ambush by unidentified men in Barangay Corro, Dalaguete, Cebu in last February 18. 

Paolo Cortes, Archival’s on-call assistant, was the lone survivor of the attack.  (FREEMAN)