Jewelry turned over to Cortes

CEBU, Philippines - The police turned over to Mayor Jonas Cortes yesterday morning the pieces of jewelry that scavengers recovered at the Umapad dumpsite in Mandaue City.

Investigative and Detective Management Bureau (IDMB) Chief Michael Anthony Bastes and Theft and Robbery Section Chief Ramil Morpos went to the City Hall at around 10:20 a.m. bringing the two big bracelets, two rings (one of which was a class ring owned by businessman Vicente Tan), a necklace with pendant and a receipt of a bracelet pawned for P127,000.

The officers also had with them the P36,500 that was left of the P127,000.

An hour after the turn over, Vicente Tan’s lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna arrived at the City Hall to claim the assorted jewelry. He endorsed to the mayor’s office an affidavit of claim and ownership.

But the city legal officer stressed that a mere affidavit is not enough for the city to release the items.

Cortes told reporters he will be the custodian of the items until proof of ownership is available, the validity of which will have to be checked by the police.

“Mangutana sa kon unsay circumstance sa pagkawagtang, let’s dig deeper into this ug dili nato yanoyanohon ug release kay dako ni nga kantidad, kay danghag ra sad ta ug magpataka ta ug release,” Cortes said. (We will ask them for details on how the items were lost. We could not release these easily to the claimants without investigating. That would be reckless of us.)

City Legal Officer Giovanni Tianero said the City will soon come out with a bulletin board to inform the public about the recovered items. The announcement will be there for two weeks.

The items will be released after six months to the claimant who can show proof but, if after two weeks, the real owner could already show proof, then the City will release the items.

“Let us give sufficient time for the public to know that these were found at the dumpsite,” Tianero said.

The lawyer said that his office will draft a procedure on how to claim the items. He added that proof of ownership the City Government would need might consist of receipts or photos of the real owner wearing the items.

A person who finds a treasure has the obligation to report this to the mayor, so they would look into the legal aspect of the scavengers pawning the items. Reward or share of the value of the items, the lawyer stressed, applies only to those who voluntarily turned over the items.

But de la Cerna, who arrived at the City hall an hour after the turnover, told reporters that the Tan family has no intention of filing a case against the scavengers for pawning and selling some of the recovered items.

In fact, dela Cerna said, once the jewelry and the P36,500 cash will be returned to the family, Tan even plans to give the money to the three scavengers as way of thanking them.

He also said his client will understand if the City could not release the items immediately. They will comply with the time frame and the procedures in claiming it, he said.

Aside from dela Cerna, representative of M. Lhuiller also went to the police to take pictures of the items to check if these were not part of the loot from the robberies last year.

Police have yet to recover a RADO watch that was sold for P15,000 along with a bracelet by scavenger Edah Montecalvo .

Since the pieces of jewelry were found at the Umapad dumpsite, questions were raised on why it is still open when the City Government claimed it was closed three years ago.

Cortes said they could not totally close the entire dumpsite because the city generates 200 tons of garbage daily. It was only recently that the City was able to buy a throw mill to help segregate the wastes. Other equipment that will be used to lessen the wastes have yet to be set up.

But he assured that because of segregation, only residual wastes are thrown at the dumpsite. — /JPM (FREEMAN)