Scholar tagged in thefts at TUP

MANILA, Philippines - A scholar was arrested for stealing a laptop from a fellow student in the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP) campus in Quiapo, Manila Thursday.

Christian Lamando, 18, was apprehended by TUP guards at the university’s main entrance at around 7 a.m. after another student, Joshua Abrio, saw him take the bag of student Jayvee Aguias from the covered court, Police Officer 3 Jupiter Tajonera said. The incident was also caught by a closed-circuit television camera.

Lamando, an entrepreneurial management student and a Sangguniang Kabataan official in his barangay, admitted he had stolen from five students prior to his arrest. He showed investigators where he stashed or sold the stolen items, and police officers recovered a BlackBerry phone from an apartment in Ermita, a laptop and a MyPhone cell phone from a Tutuban Mall store, and an iPod Nano surrendered by one of his classmates.

Lamando said he was forced to steal because he wanted to save money to be able to bring his sick mother to the hospital. Officials have expelled him from the university.