The alleged hijacking of two wing vans carrying 1,000 bags of sugar estimated to cost about P3 million in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, on Monday night, September 25, was a hoax.
There was no hijack, it was an inside job staged by the drivers of the wing vans and their cohorts who brought the sugar to a warehouse in Bago City, said Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer, who closely monitored the progress of the police investigation.
“It was all a drama, the claim of the drivers that five armed men staged a hijack in La Carlota City is not true, they were the ones who hijacked their own vehicles”, PLt. Col. Lowell Garinganao, La Carlota police chief, said.
The sugar was recovered by the police in a warehouse in Barangay Busay, Bago City, on Tuesday, Capt. Judesses Catalogo, Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office spokesman, said.
The drivers Jhujiet Arsenio, 42, of Pototan, Iloilo, and Michael Oryen, 28, of Cadiz City, said that they had picked up the sugar from the Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Company (BISCOM) on Monday and were headed for the BREDCO port in Bacolod City.
The drivers claimed that while they were on their way to Bacolod their vehicles were hijacked by five armed men in La Carlota City between 7 to 8 p.m. Monday night.
Arsenio said guns were pointed at them while their hands and feet were tied with rope and their eyes were covered. They were then placed in the back of the wing vans.
They shouted for help and at past 8 a.m. Tuesday were rescued from inside the wing vans that were abandoned at by the hijackers at about 3 a.m. in Barangay Pandanon Silos, Murcia. They did not know where the armed men unloaded the 1,000 bags of sugar, Arsenio said.
Arsenio said he did not put up a fight because he feared for his life. He also denied that the theft of the sugar was an inside job.
Police investigators noted that the wrists of drivers did not appear to have marks, which indicated that the rope had not been tight.
Garinganao said the GPS devises on the vehicles showed that they departed from Binalbagan, proceeded to Pontevedra where they rested for almost seven hours, and then drove on to Bago City were they stayed from 11 p.m. Monday to 1 a.m. Tuesday.
That is when they are believed to have unloaded the sugar at a warehouse in Busay, Bago.
The two drivers and two others are detained and are under investigation.
Catalogo said the drivers would face charges of qualified theft. The police are still identifying the others who were involved in the heist, he also said.*