Cops look for one jewelry finder

Thursday, January 26, 2012

POLICE will start their search for one of the three scavengers who reportedly found jewelry in the Umapad dumpsite in Mandaue City two weeks ago.

This, after one of the three scavengers, Eda Montecalvo, failed to appear when she, Rodrigo Corta and Antonio Quizon were asked to come to the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) headquarters yesterday morning.

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Corta and Quizon went to the MCPO headquarters after they were visited by police a day before.

Chief Insp. Michael Bastes, MCPO Investigation and Detective Management Branch (IDMB) head, said they heard reports that more jewelry was believed to have been found by the scavengers, so they were invited to shed light on the matter.

Out of the three scavengers, only Quizon and Corta went to the city police headquarters yesterday morning.

Both Corta and Quizon clarified that what they turned over to police, including the cash proceeds from a pawned bracelet, were the only items they found in the city dumpsite last week.

Claim

Bastes said that with Montecalvo’s sudden disappearance, her claim that she kept only one item is beginning to falter.

“She claims that she had pawned the item for P15,000, but why did she run away?” asked Bastes.

Montecalvo reportedly left her house in Barangay Paknaan when reports on the recovery of the jewelry circulated.

The 24-year-old scavenger reportedly recovered a gold bracelet, believed to be a strap
of a watch, which she pawned for P15,000. She had earlier told police that she pawned the item just to buy a nebulizer for her asthmatic son.

Search

The IDMB chief said that with Montecalvo gone, he is ordering a swift search for her whereabouts to see if she still has the items.

Bastes said they have to know if Montecalvo is really keeping just one article or more.

Bastes said that when he asked the two scavengers about the allegedly lost documents and bankbooks of businessman Vicente Tan, they both said they didn’t find anything.

The IDMB chief also concluded that the documents may have been burned by Tan’s maids, as claimed by the businessman in his affidavit.