Town hall employees grilled as police eye inside job angle
An employee of the municipal treasurer’s office in Carmen town who reported the loss of P4,800 of his own money may be required to take a lie detector test along with three others in relation to the series of burglaries in municipal halls of four Cebu towns.
Chief Insp. Alvin Balio of the Carmen police precinct said investigators are looking into the possibility that the burglary was an inside job.
“It’s up to the mayor if he agrees with our recommendation. It will also help them clean the ranks of their employees,” Balio said.
He said only five tables in the treasurer’s office were touched during last week’s burglary.
Balio said the vault was untouched unlike the other robberies that took place in the towns of Sogod, Pinamungajan, Carmen and Compostela.
Fabricated
“We can ask why did Lusilo Bontia have to leave his money at the office?,” he said.
Sen. Supt. Noel Gillamac, Cebu provincial police chief, said he already received reports of the police chiefs of the four towns.
“Our police chiefs are not discounting the possibility that these burglaries were inside jobs. They are verifying whether the accounts of those who reported the burglaries are fabricated,” Gillamac said.
In Pinamungajan, a utility worker is a suspect in the Aug. 31 robbery of the municipal hall’s payroll worth P430,000 inside the treasurer’s office.
Gillamac said the worker, whose identity is being withheld pending further investigation, was found to have P8,550 in his wallet a few days after the robbery although he earns only P1,146 every 15 days as shown in the municipal payroll.
The worker’s mobile phone was sent to the laboratory for examination.
“He was unable to explain why he had that amount. We are looking for more witnesses who can pinpoint the last person in the office and more circumstantial evidence pointing to him,” Gillamac said.
Last September 1, Pinamungajan police spoke with some treasurer’s office employes who said they saw the utility worker and two men break the lock to the back door of the municipal hall and rob the treasurer’s office.
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‘Police lapses’ in burglary of 3 town halls
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