Saturday, December 30, 2006 Burglars break into courtroom By Karlon N. Rama & Jujemay G. Awit Sun.Star Staff Reporters
FOR the second time in two weeks, another burglary was reported at the Palace of Justice within the Provincial Capitol compound.
Nothing was taken from a drawer in the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 15—not even the drugs kept there as part of case files—but the burglary has raised concern on the safety of the court’s workers and evidence.
It also prompted Cebu RTC Executive Judge Simeon Dumdum Jr. to issue a memorandum disallowing any unauthorized overtime by employees.
“Beginning today (Friday), no one should stay on in the Hall of Justice beyond 5 p.m. unless with the written consent of the presiding judge, and those allowed to do so must register with the security people,” Dumdum added.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had all of Judge Fortunato de Gracia’s staff members undergo a fingerprint examination yesterday, their last working day for 2006.
The operatives, led by supervising agent Ermie Monsanto, also had all security guards and janitors at the Palace of Justice fingerprinted.
Judge de Gracia, in a separate interview, strongly believes the break-in was an inside job because there was no evidence of forced entry.
“The main door didn’t appear to have been forced open,” he said.
Review
The burglary is the second time somebody broke into an agency at the Palace of Justice in the last two weeks.
Bryant Baguio, one of the building’s janitors, was arrested and charged by the NBI for breaking into the evidence lockup at the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor and taking firearms, ammunitions and some hand grenades.
The break-in, said NBI supervising agent Renan Oliva, happened very late Thursday night, Dec. 14, or very early Friday dawn.
Oliva, who investigated the break-in, said Baguio confessed to the crime when brought to the office for questioning.
While nobody saw the actual robbery, a security guard saw Baguio at the palace grounds early Friday dawn.
After word of the Branch 15 break-in spread, Judge Dumdum issued a memorandum.
“In view of recent events, specifically the breaking open of the evidence cabinet in the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor and Branch 15, it is advised that you review the security arrangements in your respective workplaces and take measures to safeguard the records and evidence to prevent any repeat of the incidents,” read the memo addressed to all judges, clerks of court and the Office of the Building Engineer.
Drug evidence
De Gracia told reporters that he immediately ordered for an inventory of the things inside the second drawer, the only one out of four that had been opened.
That drawer contained files, mostly of drug cases.
Attached to the files were packs of shabu used as evidence. The contents range from less than a gram to as much as 70-100 grams.
Apparently, when the would-be robber opened the second drawer, all he or she saw were papers and not the shabu packets attached to the chemistry report of each case, theorized Amante.
The question of how the perpetrator managed to enter the courtroom is also a mystery.
While there is a hole in the ceiling of the washroom where the steel cabinet is located—a hole big enough for a slim person to squeeze though—one cannot get to it from any of the vents outside the courtroom.
Timing
There is a window with panes large enough for a person to crawl through, but one would have to be Spiderman to get to it. De Gracia’s sala is on the third floor of the Palace of Justice.
“He could have locked himself in the washroom and waited for everybody to leave,” de Gracia said.
The break-in, said Amante, could have happened between the evening of Dec. 15 and the morning of Dec. 20, 2006.
Amante, a staffer at Judge de Gracia’s sala, said that lawyer Perpetua Belarmino, the branch clerk of court, remembered locking the steel cabinet in the afternoon of Dec. 15, 2006, a Friday, after putting in some new folders.
Rene Pagador, another staffer, said he discovered the second drawer agape last Dec. 20 but didn’t give any meaning to it.
“It was the day we had our office party. I went in to put something in the refrigerator located in a room adjoining the room where the cabinet was located,” he revealed in Cebuano.
Amante went to the drawer at 10 a.m. yesterday morning to get a file when she too noticed the second-tier drawer partially opened.
‘All suspects’
She said she took a closer look and noticed pry marks. She then alerted the other staff members who, in turn, alerted the judge who then placed a call to the NBI.
NBI agents went to de Gracia’s courtroom yesterday morning to lift finger and shoeprints from the crime scene.
The prints will be compared with the specimen prints from the employees, guards and janitors.
“If one of the prints matches any of those lifted, the person will be invited for questioning. If the person isn’t among those authorized to be in that area to begin with, then we have a lead,” one of the agents said.
Monsanto also intends to have everybody take a polygraph examination. While the results of a lie detector test aren’t admissible in court, it gives investigators something to go on.
“We are all suspects as of now,” Amante said.
“We just made light of what happened by saying that the criminals have gotten back at us because now we are the ones being fingerprinted,” said Pagador.
But not everybody, particularly the guards and the janitors, were as jovial.
“Why are we being involved in all of this? It is their problem. They are the ones who have spare keys to their office. There was no break-in,” one of them said.
