A BURGLARY occurred in the Lapu-Lapu City Hall of Justice, a government building with no security cameras.
The office of Regional Trial Court Branch 27 Judge Toribio Quiwag on the second floor of the building lost a government-issued laptop worth P50,000 and some coins kept by an employee.
Police investigators said the burglary may have occurred over the long weekend.
The building’s chief guard noted in a logbook, at 6:55 p.m. last Thursday, that the door of Room 202, where the Branch 27 staff holds office, was unlocked.
The burglary was reported to the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LLCPO), a walking distance from the Hall of Justice, around 7 a.m. yesterday, said PO2 Gino Guiaman of the LLCPO Theft and Robbery Section (TRS).
Guiaman said utility worker Nixon Degolacion, 45, called the police after he noticed that the door of Room 202 was unlocked. The worker also reported that a window was opened, and so were some drawers. Documents were also scattered on the floor.
The TRS personnel inspected the scene along with investigators from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco).
The investigators took fingerprints from the scene. They also took the fingerprints of utility workers and security guards.
Danny Hellegan, 41, the building’s chief guard, informed fellow guards Saturnino Basia and Renato dela Cruz about the unlocked door, but he failed to inform any staff member of Branch 27, Guiaman said.
“Ang sayop sa guard nganong wa niya dayon gipahibaw sa staff (The guard made a mistake by not immediately reporting it to the staff),” added Guiaman.
Hellegan said his shift ended at 11:00 p.m. He said he didn’t have the contact numbers of any of the staff members and that even if he had, he would still not be able to text or call them because he lost his phone last Wednesday.
Hall of Justice employees would not report to work until Monday because Friday was declared a national holiday in observance of Eid’l Fitr.
Ignacia Molero, 53, a janitress, told police that no window of Room 202 was opened when she went inside around 10 a.m. last Saturday for a routine maintenance work.
Bethsaida Tesaluna, a Branch 27 employee, said she was sure the door and windows were locked before she and other employees left their office last Thursday.
Theft
Two women were accused of theft and at least P240,000 in valuables and cash were taken in last Sunday’s roundup of six theft and robbery incidents in Cebu City.
Some unidentified burglars also reportedly barged into four offices at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and stole P60,620 worth of cash and gadgets yesterday dawn.
One of the victims was a Japanese national who sustained a gunshot wound in his left thigh after the driver of a habal-habal (modified motorcycle) he had boarded allegedly shot him for refusing to give all his money in Barangay Apas, Cebu City.
Kota Lijima, 24, ended up at the Cebu Doctors’ Hospital instead of his supposed destination at the Ayala Center Cebu at 3:30 p.m. last Sunday.
Initial investigation led by SPO2 Felomino Velarde of the Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) showed that Lijima was walking on Salinas Drive in Barangay Lahug when a man on board a black motorcycle stopped near him.
The man then asked Lijima if he needed a ride. Lijima told him he wanted to go to Ayala Center Cebu then boarded the vehicle.
To Lijima’s surprise, though, the man brought him to a remote area in San Antonio Village in Apas. When the motorcycle stopped, the driver allegedly pointed a gun at the victim and asked for his money.
Chief Insp. David Señor, TRS chief, said the suspect refused to receive the P100 Lijima handed to him.
“Di siya kay gamay ra kuno, ingon siya, ‘more money, more money’ (He didn’t accept it because it was small),” Señor said in a phone interview.
When Lijima found some people coming to the area, he screamed for help. The driver then shot him in his thigh and fled.
No clue
As of yesterday night, Señor said they had no clue of the suspect’s identity yet.
“The public should not ride on habal-habal motorcycles, because these vehicles are not recognized to transport passengers beforehand,” Señor said. DTJ/RSB
At 4 a.m. on the same day, a gasoline station on Jakosalem St. in Barangay Sto. Niño lost a Macbook unit worth P100,000, a smartphone worth P4,000, and an undetermined cash from unidentified burglars.
Police said they had a hard time identifying the suspects because the establishment’s closed-circuit television camera was not turned on that time.
Wilson Petron Service Station also had no security guard on standby at night and dawn.
It was cashier Michelle Gio who first discovered that some things were in disarray and some were lost when she opened the station at dawn. There were holes found in the station office’s ceiling.
Three hours earlier, two women lost there smartphones and bags to two alleged female thieves in Distillery Disco Bar in Barangay Banilad.
Police investigation showed that Juliet Inocencio and Meara Suico were binge-drinking inside the bar when they found that their things were missing.
The valuables include two iPhone 6 units worth P36,000 each and a shoulder bag worth P100,000 owned by Inocencio.
Suspects Patricia Punzalan and Janice Abangan were then found to have been holding Inocencio’s bag. The phones were no longer recovered.
Police said Punzalan had come from Sampaloc, Manila. She was residing in Abangan’s house in Mercado, Lapu-Lapu City.
Both of them landed in jail.
Shortly before that, 38-year-old Fermin Nabasis was also arrested in Sitio San Roque, Barangay Mambaling after allegedly stealing a Grinder worth P3,800.
At 3 a.m., 32-year-old Loreto Lahunay also hit the detention cell after allegedly stealing a defiletated lamp post from Motorpool.
At 5:30 a.m., 47-year-old Carmela Soterio told the Mambaling Police that someone had stolen some P8,000 cash from her outside the Mambaling Elementary School.
Soterio was selling vegetables when the unidentified man allegedly grabbed her money.