Burglars ransack DPWH executives' offices

MANILA, Philippines - The offices of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and his undersecretary were burglarized yesterday.

Ebdane, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, said he was missing a laser pointer and “giveaway medications” that expired two years ago.

“In my office, the drawers were opened but the culprits hardly ran through the stuff on my table,” he said.

Ebdane is almost certain no documents are missing since he does not leave any important papers in his office. He did not discount the possibility that the burglars were after specific documents since “the DPWH has been mentioned in some controversies and we are also having an ongoing bidding.”

He said projects lined up for bidding would have to pass through his office.

The burglars also opened drawers and scattered documents in the office of DPWH Undersecretary Bashir Rasuman, who reportedly lost a .45 caliber pistol, a laptop computer, a wristwatch and a digital camera.

Rasuman was in Marawi yesterday and has yet to see if anything was lost. He handles administration, comptrollership, and management information services at the DPWH.

A janitress who routinely cleans Ebdane’s office, which is on the second floor of the DPWH’s main building, reportedly discovered the burglary at past 8 a.m. yesterday. It appeared that the burglars entered through a sliding window in a mini-conference room adjoining Ebdane’s office.

There were no signs of forced entry into Rasuman’s office, which is on the third floor.

Ebdane said he intends to conduct his own investigation and determine if it was an inside job and if security personnel had been negligent.

A special team of policemen “swept” Ebdane’s office for possible “bugs” placed by the burglars. “Nothing was taken, but something might have been added,” Ebdane said.

Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) personnel lifted latent prints from both offices. Theft and robbery investigators noted footprints on one of the ledges of Ebdane’s office windows.

The building guards on duty did not notice anything unusual on Sunday night, the time the burglary could had occurred, investigators said.