Customs official’s house ransacked

MANILA, Philippines - Police officers are investigating the case of five robbers who stripped a Bureau of Customs (BOC) official’s house of most of its valuables and took the victim’s case files and his dog, Quezon City Police District director Senior Superintendent Richard Albano said yesterday.

Julito Doria, chief of staff of the BOC’s post entry audit group, also lost P1 million in cash, according to Inspector Alan dela Cruz, head of the QCPD’s Theft and Robbery Investigation Section.

Doria told police the robbers hogtied him and his family during the heist at his home in Barangay Batasan Hills. Surveillance footage at Doria’s house showed that the robbery started at around 2 a.m. on April 6 and lasted over 30 minutes.

According to a police report, Doria and his nephew were cruising along in his Toyota Innova in New Manila when the robbers used a Toyota Grandia to block their path.

Five men stormed out of the van and commandeered the Innova, hogtying Doria and his nephew and driving the vehicle to Doria’s house. Dela Cruz said the robbers, clad in shorts and hooded jackets and armed with handguns, seemed to know their target.

Dela Cruz noted that the robbers even took documents from the Innova such as case folders on tax cases.

Once they reached Doria’s house, the robbers barged inside and also tied up Doria’s wife, Kristine.

The robbers took televisions, sound systems, laptops, external hard drives, cell phones, digital cameras and sports equipment from the house as well as Doria’s Shih Tzu, three pistols, ammunition, and identification and credit cards of the official and his wife, Dela Cruz said.

The robbers fled with Doria and his nephew still in the Innova, where they had loaded the stolen items. Upon getting out of the subdivision, the robbers transferred the items to the Grandia and abandoned the Innova, with the hogtied lawyer and his nephew still in it, along E. Rodriguez Boulevard in Galas.