Iloilo towns fall prey to weekend burglars

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – Unidentified suspects ransacked three town halls in Iloilo province over the weekend.

Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, Iloilo police chief, theorized that only one group was behind the burglary incidents in the treasurer’s office of the towns of Ajuy, Concepcion and San Dionisio.

In the three incidents, the assailants apparently used a crow bar to open the steel cabinet and vault of the treasurer’s office.

According to Senior Inspector Jonathan Pinuela, Concepcion police chief, Concepcion treasurer’s office lost P281,290.55.

The suspects apparently entered by the main door of the municipal building and headed straight to the treasurer’s office.

They gained entry by destroying the padlock and then forced open the vault.

On the other hand, the Ajuy treasurer’s office has yet to declare the amount lost pending inventory.

Senior Inspector Ronnie Brillo, Ajuy police chief, said the robbers entered the treasurer and accounting office of the town hall.

Using a hard object, they divested three vaults at the treasurer’s office.

They also tried but failed to open the vault at the accounting office.

Meanwhile, the San Dionisio treasurer’s office lost around P200,000.

Amid the news, Senior Inspector Efren Niembra, San Dionisio police chief, revealed that the robbers failed to cart around half a million placed on the bottom drawer of the steel cabinet.

Unlike the case of Concepcion, Niembra said there was no forcible entry in San Dionisio.

In fact, an employee had used a key to open their office and just discovered that their steel cabinet was already destroyed.

Niembra added that he was at the police station, which is adjacent to the town hall, on Sunday but failed to notice anything.

As this developed, Salinas said he would call for a case conference today in a bid to solve the incident.

“Aside from identifying the suspects, I want that this incident will not happen again,” he added.

Salinas likened the burglary incidents to the series of robberies in the province of Negros Occidental on the later part of 2014.

“The pattern is the same. So, it’s possible that it is done by a single group,” he added. /JMD