Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina yesterday said that not all reported car theft incidents have turned out to be real following thorough investigations conducted by different HPG units.

Espina said that last year, they recorded a 59.40 percent reduction in carnapping cases or 1,307 incidents less compared to the 2010 statistics.

He said that the recorded cases do not include cases which have been validated not to be carnapping cases but were reported as such in the different police stations.

Espina said these include cases of estafa, casino-pawned and other pawned vehicles, spouses’ conflict, non-payment of sales proceeds, refusal to pay monthly amortization especially in motorcycles, insurance fraud, re-possessed vehicles not turned over by bank agents for insurance claim purposes, hoax or feigned reports for insurance claim purposes and such other related circumstances.

Last year, the PNP-HPG recorded a total 423 cases of motor vehicle thefts and 470 cases of motorcycle thefts compared to the 1,095 motor vehicle thefts and 1,105 motorcycle thefts recorded in 2010.

Espina said they also recorded a sizeable 37.96 percent increase in recoveries of stolen motor vehicles in 2011 after they managed to recover 745 of the entire number of stolen vehicles compared to the 540 recovered stolen vehicles in 2010.

“We are intensifying our program to recover stolen motor vehicles nationwide this year thru stepped-up patrols and checking of the engine and chassis numbers of vehicles that need to be issued HPG motor vehicle clearances,” the PNP-HPG director said.

Last week alone, more than a dozen stolen motor vehicles and motorcycles were recovered by the HPG in separate operations.

On Friday, a 2009 model Mitsubishi Strada Triton with plate no. YGP-480 which turned out to have been forcibly stolen along South Luzon Expressway on October 29, 2009 was intercepted by members of the Regional Highway Patrol Unit 6 under Senior Supt. Andrei Felix in Bacolod City.

The driver of the pick-up identified as Emmanuel Guadalupe was placed under questioning after he failed to present his driver’s license as well as the Official Receipt and Certificate of Registration of the vehicle which also showed signs of tampering when subjected to a macro-etching test.

On the same day, the RHPU12 led by Supt. James Macarilay raided a used car store in General Santos City where they recovered a stolen Toyota Hilux sporting the plate no. ZKH-897 which turned out to be officially issued to a Nissan Urvan.