Weekend break in Burglar ransack evidence room of provincial fiscal

An still undetermined number of evidence kept at the Provincial Prosecutor's Office have reportedly been stolen at dawn last Friday.

The Freeman learned about the break in yesterday, but operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and some staff of the provincial prosecutor have been working double-time on the case since last weekend.

The break in was confirmed Regional State Prosecutor Antonio Arellano, but he refused to give details.

Arellano said last night that they are almost through with the investigation and that they expect the culprit to be arrested very soon and recover the stolen pieces of evidence.

According to Arellano, they have already coordinated with the NBI to go after the culprit.

A source told The Freeman that the officials of the Department of Justice tried to hide the incident from the public and from the media.

In fact, even the employees of the provincial prosecutor's office, except for the evidence custodian, were not aware of such break in.

Arellano confirmed that they really tried to keep the incident secret in order that the on going investigation will not be jeopardized.

He however explained that they do not intend to keep it secret forever. Arellano said they are just buying for time to arrest the culprit and recover the pieces of evidence.

Evidence custodian Lyndon Lazarte, who was asked about the incident denied it and instead referred this reporter to provincial prosecutor Pepita Jane Petralba, who also refused to comment about it.

The security guards at the Palace of Justice were not also aware of such an incident.

In fact, the security logbook did not reflect any unusual incident on Friday dawn.

The guards were even surprised when asked by The Freeman about the break in at the evidence room of the provincial prosecutor's office.

According to the source, the unidentified culprit gained entrance to the building through the main door of the administrative office and passed through the ceiling supposedly to gain access to the evidence room located inside the stockroom.

However, because the evidence room could not be accessed from the ceiling because of the beams, the culprit destroyed the door to gain entry.

After having forcibly entered the evidence room, the culprit destroyed the locks of the steel cabinet where the pieces of evidence are stored.

It was not immediately known what pieces of evidence have been stolen and what cases does it involve.

The source however said that the prosecutor's office is already conducting an inventory.

Initial information obtained by the Freeman however revealed that among the piece of evidence stolen were short firearms.

The source said that DOJ officials are suspecting an inside job because he culprit was very familiar with the place and that there was no sign of forced entry at the main door of the administrative division.

NBI investigators reportedly lifted some latent prints from the crime scene and a shoe print on the wall, which could help in the investigation and the identification of the culprit.

A similar incident also happened at the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office in 2003 wherein a stash of shabu was stolen from the cabinet of one of the assistant city prosecutors.

Assistant City prosecutor Rosendo Brillantes, who was in custody of the almost 300 grams of shabu that was to be used as evidence against suspected big time drug pusher, Allan Arriesgado, was found administratively guilty and was suspended for 90 days.

A criminal case has also be filed against him at the Sandiganbayan.

Brillantes was charged for violation of Section 3(e) of the Republic Act 3019 otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The missing shabu was supposed to be the main evidence in the anti-drug case filed against Arriesgado, an alleged member of the Bebot Tabar drug ring.

The shabu, with a total street value of P357,000 based on 2001 street rates, was not yet formally offered to the court as evidence at the time of its loss.

The case against Arriesgado was eventually dismissed last October of 2003.