Manila court office loses case evidence

A Manila regional trial court branch fell prey to burglars the other night, losing case evidence and various documents.

Manila RTC Branch 27 Judge Teresa Soriaso said she arrived at the office yesterday morning only to discover that the cabinets were ransacked and some of their personal belongings missing.

Among those taken by thieves were a computer equipment, case evidence, including a handgun and an improvised shotgun, jewelry and cell phone chargers.

"We have yet to complete our inventory on documents of pending cases, but we believe that there are some papers missing," Soriaso said in an interview.

Both the door and windows of the court office, which is adjacent to a room that is undergoing renovations, were locked.

Senior Police Officer 4 Danilo Degala, of the City Hall Special Operations Group, said the suspects gained entry to the office through an opening in the ceiling, which was only covered by a piece of plywood.

Degala said they were able to lift fingerprints from the ceiling.

The building security guards, however, said they did not remember any suspicious looking people who entered the building the other night.

"Apart from the apparent robbery, we don’t know what the other motives of the burglars were. We have to wait for the results of the inventory before we can proceed with the investigation," Degala said. – Edu Punay