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Friday, July 28, 2006
Koreans charged with stealing bins
By Rose O. Versoza
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A Korean couple is now facing a theft case filed by Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano for allegedly stealing three City-owned garbage bins, each costing P6,000, placed along A.S. Fortuna St. in Barangay Bakilid.
Although there had been previous incidents of vandalism done on the bins, this is the first time that the bins in Mandaue City were stolen.
“We ask for understanding. Give me a chance. I am very, very sorry,” Korean businessman Han Hyaun Gyu, 51, told Ouano yesterday during an inquest proceeding before the City Prosecutor’s Office.
Ouano said he would not have filed the criminal complaint against Han and his 40-year-old wife Song Chun Ja had they cooperated and returned the garbage bins when City Hall employees tried to retrieve it from them last Wednesday afternoon.
Separate cases for violation of City Ordinance 10-2006-372 relating to the City’s solid waste management policy and a criminal case for resisting arrest were also filed against the Korean couple.
They also stand to lose their business permit for their used car trading business in Barangay Bakilid, as well as face a possible deportation charge.
By filing the complaint himself, Ouano said he wants to send a message to the public that the garbage bins are priority projects of the City.
Ouano said the City even borrowed around P100 million just to purchase over 8,000 bins, which cost over P6,000 each.
Discovery
“You are not just charged for using the trash cans but for stealing the trash cans,” Assistant City Prosecutor Bienvenido Mabanto Jr. told the Korean couple yesterday.
Han explained it was his security guard who stole the bins, not him. He said they refused to return the bins because they first wanted to transfer the water inside the bins to another receptacle.
The loss of the garbage bins from their designated area on A.S. Fortuna St. was first discovered past 2 p.m. last Wednesday by the City’s Tax Compliance Monitoring Team who were tasked to monitor business establishments within Barangay Bakilid.
The five-member team entered the business premises of the couple’s Kumgang Transport Corp. to go about with their usual functions. It was then that they saw the missing garbage bins inside.
Since the team still has other establishments to attend to, team member Edilberto Toñacao Jr. just called the Department of General Services to report the incident.
Immediately after, four members of the City’s Solid Waste Management Team responded to the report and arrived in the area.
They noticed that four bins placed along the sidewalk of A.S. Fortuna St. were missing.
They then saw the three bins inside the Korean couple’s business premises, used as storage for water.
“We informed the spouses to surrender and return the City-owned garbage bins but instead of returning and being remorseful for what they have done, they vented their fury on us; shouting expletives, insulting and demeaning the Filipino people,” said City Hall employees Alberto Dueñas, Elizabeth Malinao, Reynaldo Dayondon and Winston Almacin in a joint affidavit.
Almacin said they tried to explain to the couple that the bins are government properties but Han demanded that they produce first a “permit from the President.”
The City Hall employees even got wet because Song, who was already angry by then, threw a pail of water at them.
“Song also scolded one of her workers for trying to transfer the water inside the bins to another receptacle so we can take the bins,” Almacin said.
Since the Solid Waste Management Team could no longer control the situation, they asked for police assistance.
But when the police arrived, the Korean couple resisted.
“Song scratched my face and Han blocked my legs,” said SPOI Emmanuel Enolpe of Police Station 2.
Enolpe said the couple did not reveal their names to them until employees from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation arrived in the police station later that day. (ROV)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 28, 2006 issue)
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