“For Cannibalizing Sunken Vessel”: Mayor accuses metal firm  owner, four others of theft

Consolacion Mayor Avelino Gungob has filed a complaint for theft against the owner of Cebu Metal Corporation and four others for allegedly cannibalizing a sunken vessel found in the municipal waters.

Gungob, in his complaint at the provincial prosecutor’s office, alleged that Ben Chia has hired four people to salvage for scrap one of the sunken vessels found in the seas off barangay Tayud.

The municipal government is demanding P100,000 exemplary damages from the respondents.

Chia, owner of Cebu Metal Corporation, was tagged by Marino Salonoy as the one who allegedly hired them to do the salvage operation of the sunken vessel.

Salonoy said that, in the afternoon of June 17, he was with Rogelio Ariarte, Bernard Macario and Jaime Lauro in getting the scrap metals from the sunken vessel when Danilo Baroso saw them.

Baroso, chairman of the municipal fisheries aquatic resources management council, immediately informed municipal councilor Benedicto Abucay, who was tasked to secure the sunken vessels in their territory.

A police operation was then conducted, resulting in the arrest of Salonoy. His three companions escaped but they, together with Salonoy, were included in the complaint of the mayor.

Abucay, in his complaint affidavit, said that Chia’s ordering the cannibalizing of the vessel without the consent of the owner and the municipal government constitutes an act of theft in violation of the Article 308 of the Revised Penal Code. — Fred P. Languido/RAE