CEBU, Philippines – A messenger of the City Treasurer's Office of the Mandaue City Hall was arrested after he allegedly stole the office's laptop last Thursday afternoon.
Jake Cane Sapatalo, 20, of Barangay Opao and a job order employee of the City Hall, was arrested by operatives of the Investigation and Detection Management Bureau after it was found during interrogation that he was the one who stole the Lenovo laptop worth P23,000.
IDMB deputy chief Inspector Zenaido Sanchez said a staff of the city treasurer's office called them to inform that the laptop was lost at around 9 a.m. when she was supposed to used it.
Interrogation
Sanchez said they immediately responded to the alarm and interviewed the personnel of the office and upon learning it was Sapatalo and another utility worker who was left that day, both were then brought to the IDMB office for interrogation.
During interrogation, Sapatalo's co-worker told the police at around 5 p.m. last Thursday while cleaning the office, she asked Sapatalo, who was supposed to go home that time, not to leave the office yet as she wanted to go to the comfort room and told him to look after the office.
Sapatalo during the interrogation then admitted the stealing by inserting the laptop in a pile of documents which he was supposed to deliver to the different offices of the City Hall the following day.
He said he was tempted to steal the laptop as he wanted to buy illegal drugs.
Recovered
Upon learning that he sold the laptop in Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City for P4,000, the police, together with the suspect, then proceeded to the area and were able to recover the item.
However, Sanchez said they already failed to recover the P4,000 after the suspect used the proceeds to play in a carnival and to buy illegal drugs.
After the recovery of the laptop yesterday, the suspect was then presented by the police to city treasurer Regal Oliva.
Oliva said he cannot forgive the suspect because the fund used to obtain it was taxpayers' money.
He could have forgiven him if he was the owner of the said laptop, Oliva said.
Disappointed
Oliva said he was disappointed because the suspect was being hired by the city government because his mother, who is also a utility worker of the city, was adjudged as Most Outstanding Employee last year.
The suspect has been working at City Hall for four months now and has been assigned at the treasurer's office for less than two months yet.
The incident happened just when Oliva wrote to Mandaue City Police Office director Police Senior Superintendent Petronelli Baldebrin to request more police visibility at City Hall following the series of burglaries in the different cash divisions of the different towns.
Last Thursday evening, some policemen were immediately detailed at City Hall, according to Oliva.
With the latest incident, Oliva said he immediately wrote the Mayor's Office yesterday for the immediate installation of closed-circuit television cameras in the different cash divisions of the city.
Robbery attacks
Early this month, Pinamungajan's municipal government was attacked by robbers, who ran off with P400,000 collected by the municipal treasurer's office.
Before that, in Carmen town, P4,800 cash was stolen from the Treasurer's Office after burglars entered the room by destroying the padlock. The police station is located in the same compound of the municipal building.
Meanwhile, Sogod municipal treasurer's office was also robbed and lost over P56,000.
The Cebu Provincial Police Office said they will find out if there were any lapses by their men following the burglary of the treasury offices.