Teenager caught with stolen motorcycle in N. Cotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY – North Cotabato police authorities said they were trying to find out if syndicates were using minors to steal motorcycles.

The possibility surfaced Monday following the arrest of a 16-year-old boy in Tulunan town after he was caught in possession of a stolen Honda XRM after the Makilala town police sent out an alarm when a resident reported the disappearance of his motorcycle.

The North Cotabato police set up checkpoints in the hope of recovering the stolen motorbike.

Inspector Ramil Hajilla, Tulunan police chief, said it was past 4 p.m. Monday when his men reported the interception of a minor who was driving a motorcycle fitting the description of stolen motorbike.

The driver, a resident of Kidapawan City, later admitted to the police that he was on his way to Datu Paglas in Maguindanao to sell the motorbike to a contact, Hajilla said.

Hojilla said they were trying to establish if the boy was also involved in other motorcycle thefts in the province.

But even so, the police were at a loss because a minor could not be criminally charged, he said.

The theft of motorcycles was so rampant in North Cotabato—40 motorcycles were stolen from January to September last year—that the Kidapawan City police had offered a reward of P15,000 for information leading to the arrest of any motorcycle thief.

Superintendent Chino Mamburam, Kidapawan police chief, urged motorcycle owners to take precautionary measures such as investing in locks and leaving their vehicles in secure places.

In Cagayan de Oro City, motorcycle and car theft was also among the top concerns of the police, according to Senior Superintendent Gregorio Pimentel of the Highway Patrol Group in Northern Mindanao.

Pimentel said their efforts paid off in October with the arrest of the owner of an insurance company in Butuan City who was caught with blank registration documents, dry seals, vehicle conduction stickers and other documents from the Land Transportation Office.

Pimentel said they suspected that stolen vehicles from other parts of the country had been “processed” at that insurance office.

In Northern Mindanao, car and motorcycle theft were listed along with murder among the top police concerns. (report from Carlo Agamon, Tito Fiel and Bobby Lagsa, Inquirer Mindanao)