One of the two sports utility vehicles reportedly stolen by suspected members of a nationwide organized carnapping syndicate from a rent-a-car establishment in Bacolod City was recovered in Dipolog City, Zamboanga Del Norte Saturday morning, the police said yesterday.

Case investigator Police Officer 3 Celito Dullan said the representative of the rent-a-car establishment reported to them last week that a man, who introduced himself as a certain “Rainier Ortiz” rented a red and a green Mitsubishi Adventure on June 18.

Ortiz, who was staying in a hotel in Bacolod, told the management of the rent-a-car establishment that he will use the vehicles for three days as his Japanese friends were arriving, police records showed.

However, the following day, a driver of the rent-a-car establishment, who was on his way to Bacolod City, saw the two vehicles in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, police records also showed.

Dullan said the owner of the rent-a-car establishment sought the help of his relative in Dumaguete to verify the information and was told that the vehicles were seen being loaded on a roll-on-roll-off vessel going to Dapitan town in Zamboanga del Norte.

Dullan said they coordinated with the Highway Patrol Group and this led to the recovery of the red Mitsubishi vehicle in Dipolog and the arrest of several personalities, whose identities were not yet available as of press time yesterday.

Investigation showed that a rent-a-car establishment in Iloilo City identified Ortiz as the same person who also rented two of their vehicles and also failed to return them.

Dullan said Ortiz, who gave a different name to the management of the rent-a-car establishment in Iloilo presented a driver’s license issued in Dubai, and an Australian driver’s license when he rented the Mitsubishi vehicles.

He said the search for the other Mitsubishi vehicle continues and that there was information that it was spotted somewhere in Region 9.

The Bacolod City Police will meet with the management of rent-a-car establishments in Bacolod so they will not be victimized by these carnapping suspects.*APN

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