Still no leads in theft of guns, shabu in QC court

Police still face a blank wall in the investigation of a theft at the Quezon City regional trial court where unidentified men stole evidence consisting of seven firearms and some 1.2 kilos of shabu.

Central Police District investigators have questioned the two security guards detailed at the Quezon City Justice Hall when robbers broke into the sala of Branch 95 Judge Diosdado Peralta last month.

"The police yet have no suspect," said clerk of court Ruth Ferrera. "We still don’t know who did it."

The security guards, Charito Madriaga and Alex Briones, have denied participation in the crime. They said the robbers apparently entered the building by scaling the wall and slipping into a slightly opened window.

They said they did notice that the light in the staff room of Judge’s Peralta’s court was on when they made the rounds of the four-level building at around 11 p.m.

According to the guards, they knocked on the staff room’s door several times but got no answer. They duly noted this observation in the logbook they regularly keep, the guards said.

Investigators say they are looking at an inside job considering that the suspects apparently knew where to look for the evidence, which had been kept inside a metal cabinet behind the clerk of court’s desk.
An inventory showed the robbers took seven guns, two .45 caliber pistols, a .25 caliber pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, a 9 mm pistol and a 5.56 mm HK automatic rifle, and some 1.2 kilos of shabu.

The judge has, however, said that the loss of the evidence would not in any way affect the outcome of the cases, noting that the evidence had already been admitted in court.– Romel Bagares