MANILA, Philippines — Mystery shrouds the recovery of a burned driver’s license, believed to belong to carnap-slay victim Venson Evangelista, at a syndicate’s hideout in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga.

Chief Superintendent Alan Purisima, Central Luzon police director, said the burned driver’s license was in a wallet found in an apartment unit in Greenville Subdivision, Barangay San Jose, City of San Fernando, that was raided Friday night.

But the recovery of the driver’s license is raising more questions than answers. One veteran investigator, who requested anonymity, asked: Does this mean that the perpetrators of the crime took the driver’s license – a piece of evidence that may eventually pin them down – with them when they rushed back to their hideout?

The burned driver’s license, however, was not listed as among the pieces of evidence seized from the apartment in the initial police report.

In the police report, the evidence seized were an Armscor 9mm pistol, an Armscor .45 caliber pistol, a Para (hi-cap) .40 pistol, a magazine for 9mm pistol, 10 bullets for 9mm pistol, two magazines for .40 caliber pistol, 50 bullets .40 caliber pistol, a magazine for .45 caliber pistol, two handheld radios, two spare batteries for handheld radio, 22 sets of car license plates, metal plates with Chassis numbers, and other personal belongings.

Apart from seizing pieces of evidence, police arrested during the raid two suspects – Alfred Mendiola and Batibot Parulan.

Police said Mendiola was tagged as the same Allan Torres, the gay who had posed as poseur-buyer of the Toyota Land Cruiser being sold by Evangelista, while Parulan is being accused as an accessory to the crime.

With this development, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is now preparing what it described to be an air-tight case against two brothers, who allegedly head a carnapping syndicate, in connection with the brutal killing of Evangelista as well as another car dealer, Emerson Lozano, and his driver Ernani Sensil who were mercilessly gunned down before their cadavers were burned in several parts of Central Luzon.

Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Jr., PNP spokesman, said the charges that would be filed against Roger and Raymond Dominguez are very essential that they are planning to directly file the case before special prosecutors of the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Police said that the apartment they raided was rented by the Dominguez brothers.

Aside from the Dominguez brothers, also implicated in the Lozano-Evangelista-Sensil case are a certain Joel who acted as the auto mechanic and a certain Rolly who served as the gunman.

“We have sufficient pieces of evidence that they are indeed responsible for that gruesome killings, the charges will be filed the soonest possible time,” said Cruz in a phone interview.

Earlier, a PNP Special Investigation Task Group tagged the Dominguez brothers as the mastermind behind the killing of Evangelista, whose body was cremated on Saturday at the St. Peter Funeral Chapels in Quezon City. Evangelista was abducted on January 13 and his burned cadaver was found in Cabanatuan City the following day.

But the Dominguez brothers, in a television interview last Friday, denied having anything to do with the latest carnap-slays.

Since police noted similarities on the way Evangelista, Lozano, and Sensil were killed, probers said there is a strong possibility that they are the same set of suspects are responsible in three cases.

Cruz, however, would not divulge the strongest pieces of evidence that would link the Dominguez brothers in the Lozano-Evangelista-Sensil case but said the information revealed by the two persons earlier collared are vital in pinning down the two notorious siblings.

“Suffice it to say that we have strong material and testimonial pieces of evidence against them,” said Cruz.

Cruz said it was Mendiola and Parulan who provided the police with vital information on those who were behind the carnap-slay.

“We still do not know if they will be turned as state witnesses, but we will leave that decision to the government lawyers,” said Cruz.

“This development, as well as the statements of the two malefactors effectively solves the Venson Evangelista murder-carnapping case. The Emerson Lozano and Ernane Sensil case is also being pursued with the evidence and accounts of witnesses,” a statement of the special investigation formed by the PNP to solve the Lozano-Evangelista case read.

“Police are still conducting investigation and police operations to arrest remaining suspects identified in the abovementioned murder and carnapping cases,” it added.

One-strike policy
The PNP leadership has started implementing a virtual one-strike policy on carnapping and other high-profile cases on its police commanders nationwide.

Director General Raul M. Bacalzo, PNP chief, ordered the new policy as a form of further encouraging his commanders to work doubly hard against criminal activities.

“Once a high-profile crime occurs in a place, the chief of police or station commander will be relieved and replaced under the principle of command responsibility,” said Cruz.

“But this policy will be carried out with due process, meaning, investigation will still have to be conducted to determine if there are indeed lapses on the part of the police commander,” he added.

Earlier, President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered the PNP to intensify its operations against criminal activities following the brutal killings of the two car dealers and the spate of carnapping activities, the recent involving the Toyota Land Cruiser of Margarita Fores, a relative of Liberal Party President Mar Roxas; and the Toyota Hi-Ace Grandia f radio anchor Carl Balita.

“With this policy, we believe that our commanders will work harder in order to ensure that there will be no repeat of such incidents,” said Cruz.

Life for carnappers
With the current carnapping frenzy, proposals to consider it as a heinous crime continue to pile up in the House of Representatives.
 
Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo made the proposal in a bid to rally lawmakers to respond with immediate legislativeaction to the upsurge of crimes, which have “put the lives and properties of every citizen in clear and imminent danger.”

“It is time to place the right tag to carjacking as justifiably heinous in terms of the consequences to their victims”, Castelo explained.

And as the House of Representatives remains divided about the reimposition of the death penalty to deter the commission of the crime, Buhay Party-list Rep. Irwin Tieng batted for a tougher law whether or not carnapping is committed with or without violence, force, intimidation, and execution.

Tieng filed the bill that seeks to punish all forms of carnapping with reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment by amending the Anti-Carnapping Act of 1972 (Republic Act No. 6539), which has imposed lesser offense to carnappers that enables them to post bail.

“Carjacking has become an even more gruesome crime these days. People lose not only their cars but their lives as well. Targets of this terrifying scourge nowadays are dealers who try to sell rather ordinary cars,” said Tieng.

Conspiracy
Meanwhile, Iloilo Rep. Jerry Treñas urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the involvement of car insurance firms in snowballing number of carnapping incidents in the metropolis.

He said that car insurance firms and agents were allegedly conspiring with car thieves to enable them to pass off stolen vehicles as legal and be able to register them with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) without any hassle.

Citing the information he gathered, the Visayan solon said car thieves normally steal vehicles that has the same model, color, and make of vehicles that had been completely wrecked due to serious accidents.

He added that the registration papers, the official receipt, and other pertinent documents of the condemned vehicle are reportedly being sold to carnapping syndicates who use these documents to “legalize” carnapped vehicles.

“My sources tell me that the engine number and the serial number in the chassis of the stolen vehicles are replaced with numbers that appear in the engine and chassis of the condemned vehicles. With this, the hot cars will take the place of the condemned vehicles, hence, they become perfectly legal,” Treñas, chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, said. (With reports from Jeffrey G. Damicog, Rio Rosa Ribaya, and Charissa M. Luci)