'Cops' hijack delivery truck in Caloocan

MANILA, Philippines - At least six armed men, wearing black shirts marked with the word “police,” hijacked a truck containing an undetermined amount of food products a few hundred meters from the Bonifacio Shrine in Monumento, Caloocan City early yesterday.

Police said the armed men hogtied driver Arnold Ponce, 35; Ponce’s son and helper Jayson, 17; and helper Jiovane Petracorta, 27.

Senior Superintendent Jude Santos, Caloocan City police chief, said the victims were supposed to deliver an undetermined amount of food products to customers in Northern Luzon when armed men blocked the 10-wheeler truck (RFF-692) at around 2:30 a.m. yesterday and took the goods at gunpoint.

The victims were later found by residents of Villa Luisa Subdivision in Bagumbong and turned over to the authorities.

Superintendent Norberto Babagay, North Caloocan Police Station (NCPS) chief, said in his report that the elder Ponce was driving the truck when the suspects, disguised as policemen, stopped them along MacArthur Highway at a fake checkpoint.

One of the suspects allegedly pointed an Armalite rifle at the elder Ponce and asked to take over the wheel. The three victims were asked to get down from the truck and shoved into a Toyota Revo.

Ponce told investigators they were hogtied and blindfolded while inside the vehicle and later dumped in Bagumbong. A security guard of the subdivision found them and sought assistance from the local police.

The truck and the 707 cases of food products have not been found. – Jerry Botial