Policemen have been ordered to further intensify their security patrol inside subdivisions in typhoon-affected areas in Metro Manila and nearby provinces following the arrest of carnap suspects inside the Provident Village in Marikina City.

Director Leopoldo Bataoil, head of the Directorate for Police Community Relations and concurrent acting spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said checkpoints have already been set up at all the entrance and exit gates of Provident Village and other subdivisions in Cainta, Pasig, and Marikina areas.

“It is unfortunate that there are criminal elements who still take advantage of the misery of other people by conducting some illegal activities,” said Bataoil in an interview.

Bataoil revealed that over the weekend, a group of Army troopers decided to check on the driver and helper of a truck carrying a vehicle at the vicinity of the Provident Village in Marikina City.

It was during the interrogation, he said, that the Army troopers found out that they did not own the vehicle which was loaded on the truck and that there was not even any authorization from the owner of the vehicle to take his car.

“So it appeared that it was a new modus operandi of the suspected car thieves, they pretend to be members of a company engaged in fixing cars to avoid suspicion,” said Bataoil.

“Sino nga naman mag-aakala na carnappers sila eh busy talaga ngayon ang mga kumpanya na nag-aayos ng mga sasakyan dahil sa dami ng naapektuhang sasakyan nung baha,” he said.

Those arrested, Bataoil revealed, were already turned over to the Marikina City Police.

A number of vehicles were stalled and left abandoned on the streets in eastern Metro Manila after they were damaged during the heavy flooding brought by tropical storm “Ondoy.”

While the security in Provident Village and other subdivisions affected by the flooding has been intensified, Bataoil urged the owners of the vehicles which were damaged during the flooding to make sure that their cars are safe.

“What our personnel do now is to check the trucks and other vehicles going in and out of the affected subdivisions.

Even those carrying carts are currently being barred entry as part of our security operations,” said Bataoil.

While only one case of carnapping in a flood-afflicted area has been reported so far, Bataoil warned car owners to secure their car as they may be other groups who may use the same ploy as what the arrested suspects did.

Two days after the “Ondoy” onslaught, the police were forced to set up emergency outposts to beef up police visibility inside the Provident Village and other affected subdivisions following reports of looting on the abandoned houses.

The emergency outposts have so far paralyzed the operation of robbers in abandoned houses until the cops learned that carnappers have stepped in with a new modus operandi.