OFW doctor loses $26K to OWWA guard

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines -  A Filipino doctor who works overseas lost US$26,000 and a hefty amount of Philippine peso in the local office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in this city, the police said.

Inspector Joseph Ortega, spokesman of Police Regional Office 9 (PRO), said the local police here reported the incident occurred Wednesday afternoon following the complaint of victim identified as Angus Emperial Aranan, 48, a resident of a Barangay Talon-Talon but was working as a physician abroad.

Aranan claimed that he accidentally left his bag containing $26,000, P143,000 and clothes at the OWWA office following a transaction. However when he returned to pick up the bag he found that the money was gone.

The victim said the review of the CCTV of the office showed the money was allegedly taken by the security guard identified as Rafael Hernandez based on the footage.

The police disclosed that further review of the CCTV footage also showed that Hernandez left the office while still on duty.

Ortega said police personnel went to the house of Hernandez, but failed to catch the suspect who was allegedly  seen by neighbors leaving the  house with his family about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

The police recovered some pictures of the suspect, who is a native of Bulacan, and alerted all police units to locate his possible whereabouts. - Roel Pareño