COTABATO CITY (December 4, 2025) — Policemen recovered on Monday, December 1, in Lamitan City in Basilan a pick-up truck from Lucena City in Quezon province, the 15th carnapped vehicle seized in separate operations since 2023 by different police units in the Bangsamoro region.
Police Col. Davin Brillantes, regional chief of the Regional Highway Patrol Unit-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and Mayor Roderick Furigay separately told reporters on Wednesday that an RHPU team, led by Senior Master Sgt. Allimar Sangeban, intercepted the vehicle, a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, at a thoroughfare in Lamitan City.
The law-enforcement operation that led to the impoundment of the missing vehicle was premised on tips by vigilant tipsters and local officials aware of its presence in Basilan, one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The recovery of the stolen pick-up truck was hastened with the use of a global positioning device hidden inside the vehicle, according to police officials and local executives in Lamitan City.
The driver of the pick-up truck was held for procedural questioning.
Sangeban and officials of the Lamitan City Police Station asked reporters to keep the name of the vehicle’s owner, meantime, while efforts to determine how it reached Basilan, where it was found by RHPU-BAR personnel, are still underway.
The RHPU-BAR is now establishing contact with the real owner of the Toyota Hilux pick-up truck.
Brillantes and his subordinates in Basilan said they are grateful to Lamitan City officials and Gov. Mujiv Hataman for actively supporting their law-enforcement activities in Basilan.
Personnel of different units of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, under Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, and RHPU-BAR operatives have impounded 15 stolen vehicles, from outside of BARMM, in one anti-carnapping operation after another in the past 24 months, carried out with the help of local government units and traditional community leaders.
The recovered carnapped vehicles had been returned to owners, police records indicate.
Photo shows the recovered stolen Toyota Hilux pick-up truck, now in the custody of the Basilan HPU, which is based in Isabela City in the province.