Armed men hijack Philpost van in Cavite

(Updated 12:20 p.m.) A van of the Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost) carrying local and international mail was hijacked by unidentified armed men in Silang, Cavite Friday morning. Lawyer Antonio de Guzman, officer-in-charge Postmaster General and chief executive officer, told reporters that the Philpost van, a Suzuki delivery truck (SGV 238), could not be located as of posting time. The van was also carrying valuable packages from Japan at the time of the incident, De Guzman said. In an interview with reporters, De Guzman said he suspects an "inside job." "Alam ko me contact din sa loob yan e. Alam nila yung mail van kung me valuable na laman. Mostly coming from Japan (na mga packages ang hina-hijack)," de Guzman noted. It was the sixth hijacking incident involving a Philpost van in the last two years. The latest happened just before Christmas. De Guzman added that most of the incidents happened in Cavite and Laguna. Unresolved cases Citing initial reports, De Guzman said van driver Edward Bernabe and courier Eduardo Balanag were dropped off by the hijackers in Barangay (village) Biga in Silang town. It was not known, however, how many suspects were involved in the incident. He could not provide other details yet as they are still gathering information on the incident. The driver and the courier were still in Silang, Cavite. Upon learning of the incident, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima asked De Guzman to provide her a list of the unresolved hijacking cases which she will refer to the National Bureau of Investigation. "All these years wala pang mga nahuhuli, much less napo-prosecute. Maybe it’s about time to be serious about this. I'm requesting from Philpost a list of all those unresolved incidents and what I'm going to do is to ask NBI to investigate so that we can prosecute those who are behind the hijacking," she said. De Guzman and other Philpost officials were in the DOJ to sign a memorandum of agreement with the justice department to be the latter's official mail service provider. De Lima was also surprised how the culprits were able to evade arrest and prosecution. "Why have they evaded, all this time, successful investigation and prosecution? These are very serious matters that have to be looked into this time," she said. De Guzman said they have provided security escorts for some of their vans due to the rampant hijacking incidents. However, he admitted, they cannot protect all their vans due to lack of funds. He added their security personnel were provided with short firearms, which are not enough when faced with the high-powered firearms of the hijackers. De Guzman added that the Philpost shelled out some P3 million as indemnity to the owners of the mail and packages stolen last month. He said they paid P8,000 for every package and P2,800 for the documents. "Pag na-inventory na namin they (owners of the packages and mails) will be notified. Ang liability namin dyan ay for parcel P8,000 plus ang babayaran namin, for documents we will pay P2,800," De Guzman said. "Pero hindi yung pera, yung image namin ang nasisira e," he added. — RSJ, GMANews.TV