Thief breaks into PSC offices

Taking advantage of the absence of detailed security guards at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, a thief broke into the offices of four top officials of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) last Thursday evening.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said the burglar managed to take items worth an estimated P55,000 from the PSC offices, which have been ransacked several times in the last three years.

Assistant Regional Director Vicente de Guzman III of the NBI-Special Action Unit said that in the latest incident, the thief broke into the offices of PSC Assistant Commissioner Ricardo Garcia, Executive Director Guillermo Eroy, National Sports Association Affairs Office head Annie Ruiz and Accounting Division chief Merlita Ibay.

The first three offices are located on the fourth floor while Ibay’s is located on the third floor.

Although all four offices were ransacked, only Ibay lost belongings. The missing items are a pair of Oakley sunglasses worth P25,000 and a digital camera worth P30,000.

Initial investigation conducted by the NBI-SAU showed that the break-in took place between 10 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, when there were no guards on duty and only the main gate was padlocked.

"We are still trying to find out if the suspect went from the fourth floor going down to the second floor, or the other way around. But we were able to lift some prints," De Guzman said.

Investigators said the suspect might have climbed up the fire exit ladder and entered the offices by passing through the sliding doors.

Some of the doors were unlocked, but there were also signs of forcible entry at the office of Eroy.

Staff reporting for work yesterday informed the the NBI-SAU of the burglary.