MAMANG PULIS -- THE Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group yesterday pressed anew its call for Congress to pass tougher anti-carnapping laws including one that will make car theft a non-bailable offense in the wake of the release on bail of a man who was tagged as the suspect who stole at gunpoint the Toyota Fortuner of a former Ilocos Sur councilor in Sampaloc, Manila, last April 18.

Five days after he was positively identified as the gunman who stole the SUV of former Ilocos Sur Councilor James Raguindin, suspect Manchester Habon Uy on Monday last week walked out of the PNP-HPG headquarters to the chagrin of agents of the HPG Special Operations Division-Task Force Limbas who arrested him after days of surveillance.

Now a temporarily free suspect, Uy is the latest among the country’s car theft personalities who have been arrested by the PNP-HPG but are currently out on bail, said PNP-HPG director Chief Supt. Leonardo A. Espina. Espina has proposed three major recommendations to Congress to help curb down incidents of car thefts in the country, foremost of which is making the crime of carnapping, highway robbery or brigandage as non-bailable offenses. He raised the possibility that most of the freed suspects are just waiting for the opportune time to attack another target in the country.