‘Coop’ loses P135 thousands to dawn burglary

CEBU, Philippines — A cooperative in Dumanjug, Cebu lost almost P135,000 early dawn on Friday to unidentified robbers.

The building owner where the Cebu People’s Cooperative was renting reported the burglary incident to the police around 6:20 a.m. after noticing that the steel cover of the office was already damaged.

Deputy chief and chief investigator Samuel Cañete of the Dumanjug Police Station said that the unidentified burglars destroyed the door of the establishment and forcibly opened it and took the cash vault containing P134,568.25.

The cash vault, which was already empty and wrecked, was later found in the neighboring barangay, Tapon, on the same day the robbery was reported, according to Cañete.

He added that the suspects may have a lookout that was closely monitoring the movement of the police mobile patrol along the area.

“Estimated 2 to 3 (early dawn) because 11 (pm) to 1 (am), ang mobile patrol sa area mag sige pa og agi. Pag 2 to 3, ang mobile patrol didto na sa pikas. Posible kami ra ang gibantayan,” Cañete told The FREEMAN.

Cañete also said that they are not discounting the possibility that the incident could also be an inside job.

However, the investigation is still ongoing for possible identification and arrest of the suspects.

“Daghan suspects gyud ana.  Di man na mabuhat og usa ra, unya di pa pud mi maka-recommend og inside (job) kay investigation is still going on,” Cañete said.

Interestingly, the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed outside and inside the establishment were not functioning, according to their I.T. technician.

The management already knew about the defective CCTV cameras but reportedly did not do anything about it. — Patricia Faith T. Santillan, STC Intern/GAN (FREEMAN)