MANILA, Philippines - Amid incidents of high-profile car theft cases, the Philippine National Police (PNP) clarified Friday that the number of carnapping cases in the country is actually lower compared to last year's record.

Superintendent Edwin Butacan, spokesman of the PNP-Highway Patrol Group (HPG), said a total of 392 cars and motorcycles have been stolen from January to June this year.

Butacan said this year's 6-month carnapping record is 60% lower compared to the 679 cars and motorcycles stolen during the same period in 2009.

Based on the PNP-HPG's record for this year, Metro Manila remains the carnapping capital in the country with majority of the car theft cases happening in the metropolis.

Butacan said 296 cases have been recorded in Metro Manila, 84 of which were recorded in Quezon City.

He said that since January, a total of 177 stolen cars and motorcycles have been recovered by the police's anti-carnapping units.

He said some of the recovered vehicles have been returned to their owner while the others remained impounded at their headquarters in Camp Crame.

Butacan, meanwhile, admitted that it would be hard to recover all stolen vehicles since majority of these are brought to Mindanao. He said vehicles smuggled into Mindanao usually have tampered engine and chassis numbers.

The National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has partially resolved 2 recent high-profile carjacking incidents in Metro Manila.

The NCRPO's anti-carnapping operatives recovered the Toyota Camry of former Ambassador Roberto Romulo and the Volvo XC 90 of actor Derek Ramsay's father after the arrest of 2 carjacking suspects in Quezon City on Thursday night.

The suspects are members of the so-called Padilla Group led by a certain Ivan Padilla. Police said the group's members are mostly young.

Picky car thieves

The police spokesman said that carjacking groups or even small-time car thieves are usually picky in choosing cars to steal.

He said among the favorites are Toyota cars including the Fortuner, Altis and Camry.

Car thieves also target other company's sport utility vehicles and vans.

Butacan advised car owners not to stay too long inside their parked vehicles to avoid being hurt by carjackers.

During a carjacking incident, he said that it would be better for the driver to hand over the keys without resistance to avoid getting hurt.

Butacan also reminded victims of carjacking to try to memorize their attackers' faces so that police would have better changes of arresting the suspects and at the same time, recover their vehicles.

He said car owners should also choose a parking slot where they can easily spot or check their vehicles. He added that car owners should also be picky in choosing their parking slots that look safer. – with a report from Wheng Hidalgo, ABS-CBN News