MMDA employee loses jewelry to adopted son

A 52-year-old employee of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) lost some half a million pesos in cash and valuables she kept in her home after they were taken by a jobless homesexual whom she "adopted" some three months ago in Malabon City.

Still trembling in anger, victim Zenaida Montoya, of Block 401, Lot 16, Kaunlaran Village, Malabon, reported the incident to a local police station, identified the suspect as Ronald Salcedo alias "Joseph Acota," 34, of Sta. Ines, San Miguel, Bulacan.

Montoya, carrying an empty jewelry box which had contained family heirloom, including some 25 pieces of gold necklaces, 14 pieces of gold bracelets and 14 sets of gold earrings, believed to have been stolen by the suspect.

Probers said the victim discovered the theft at around four in the morning when she arrived home with the door open and Salcedo gone. She said she left Salcedo to watch over the house when she went out to work that morning. Salcedo remains at large. – Jerry Botial