Stolen car found in Maguindanao del Norte

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police recovered on Friday in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte a car stolen in the faraway General Santos City in Region 12 three days before.

Lt. Col. Esmael Madin, Datu Odin Sinsuat police chief, said on Saturday that the Mitsubishi car of Annie Escorido Labarda of Barangay Dadiangas North in General Santos City, bearing license plates MAJ 8276, was found virtually abandoned at Sitio Bongkori in Barangay Nekitan.

Personnel of the Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipal Police Station and intelligence agents of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region had retrieved the stolen car with the help of Nekitan Barangay Chairman Sukarno Sinsuat.

The car was found by community leaders in Barangay Nekitan three days after radio stations in central Mindanao reported, citing blotters from units of the Police Regional Office-12 in General Santos City, about its having been stolen, while parked along a busy street, by men wearing medical face masks, apparently to hide their facial features.

Madin said on Saturday that they shall inform Lebarda that her car had been found and is now in the premises of the Datu Odin Sinsuat MPS.

Police suspect that the car thieves planned to take Lebarda's car to Cotabato City but changed their mind. They may have been alerted about police and military presence at checkpoints near the city and Maguindanao del Norte's border in the Bangsamoro region, leading them to abandon the vehicle instead.