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Saturday, June 14, 2008
3 workers caught stealing 38 sacks of rice in Cebu
CEBU CITY -- Three men were arrested for allegedly colluding with one another in stealing 38 sacks of rice from a warehouse in Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City on Friday.
Members of the Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) waited to pounce on Reynaldo Dolantes, 32; Jessie Serbado, 26; and Jupiter Eslaga, 25, after warehouse owner Juan Lim told them that his men were stealing sacks of rice from his warehouse.
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Police are also looking for Simeon Lanit, who is in charge of the Asian Grain warehouse, and reportedly another suspect in the theft incidents.
Lim told reporters that his neighbors informed him about his own employees stealing sacks of rice from his warehouse and loading them into a taxicab.
A taxicab reportedly enters the warehouse between 11 a.m. and noon after a truck hauling sacks of rice leaves the warehouse. At least five sacks of rice are taken by the suspects every time.
However, on Friday, they decided to take more than the usual number of sacks and used an orange multicab to haul 38 sacks.
Each sack of Ivory and Ganador rice contained 25 kilos and was worth at least P1,000 per sack.
They were caught in the act by operatives of the TRS.
Lim said that for the last three months, there was always a discrepancy in his inventory.
He said he will proceed with the case against the suspects as he felt slighted, the two of them being his employees for several years.
"Ipaabot unta na sa Muntinlupa (I wish they will be sent to the National Penitentiary)," he said.
Years of service
Dolantes has been employed with Asian Grain for 10 years while Lanit has been working at the warehouse for 40 years.
Serbado, for his part, said he used to be a security guard but quit his job. He said Dolantes approached him and asked if he could help them in hauling the sacks of rice for a price.
Eslaga said that they first hired a taxicab to haul the sacks on four other occasions. But on Friday, they decided to take the multicab.
He said the multicab was owned by the person who bought the rice from the three.
Senior Inspector Michael Bastes said they are studying the possibility of filing a case for violation of the anti-fencing law against the multicab owner, depending on the statement they will gather from the three arrested men.
The multicab owner, however, called Sun.Star Cebu Friday and requested not to be named.
He said he was not engaged in the business of selling rice and had nothing to do with the stolen items.
He said the three only rented his multicab and that they were customers in his eatery on V. Rama Ave.
Bastes said they will evaluate the statements of the three to see if the multicab owner can be held liable.
Initially though, Eslaga said the multicab owner was the same person who got the sacks of rice from them. He also believes that the owner knew where the sacks came from.
Bribery
Bastes said that Dolantes and Lanit will face qualified theft charges while Eslaga and Serbado will be charged with plain theft.
Dolantes also reportedly tried to bribe SPO2 Jeffrey Diola.
Diola said that Dolantes asked if they could settle the case and said he had P3,500 cash.
They won't file a charge for bribery, though, as they were unable to conduct a transaction.
In the southern town of Badian, Cebu, a sack of rice was discovered stolen from a school Thursday morning.
Armando Enbab, 34, of Barangay Malbago informed the police that his wife Elizabeth discovered the loss when she entered her classroom where 12 sacks of National Food Authority rice were stored.
The rice sacks were distributed to them as part of the Department of Education's Food for School program.
She noted that two jalousie blades from the classroom's window were missing. (MEA of Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (June 14, 2008 issue)
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