Guard mistakes student for shoplifter

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A branch here of a big pharmaceutical store is under fire after its guard on Monday berated a 17-year-old student before customers for having wrongly thought he was a shoplifter.

The security guard, whom workers of the Mercury Drug along Sinsuat Avenue at the downtown area identified only as “Guard Binez,” had apologized later for accusing Li Owen Chua of shoplifting.

Chua, 17, is a first year college student of the Notre Dame University (NDU) in Cotabato City, owned by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation..

Efforts to get an explanation from the management of the drugstore, until past 8 p.m. Monday, were futile.

A senior employee of the establishment, who introduced herself as Lian, has insinuated they do not have control of their security guards, who work for the company based on contract with their agency, the Asiatic Security and Detective Agency.

Witnesses have confirmed that Chua, who was in his school uniform, was to buy a bottle of lotion, but decided to leave the store and head home due to the long line of customers waiting for their turns to transact with the payment counters.

The sources said Biñez grabbed Chua by the wrist and rudely asked him, before other customers, to turn over the bottle of lotion which the former thought he had pocketed.

Biñez lambasted Chua, a minor, with invectives as he forced the child to confess to having stolen something from the drug store.

Chua left the drugstore weeping after having been embarrassed by Biñez, who himself discovered that the bottle of lotion was on the display shelf where the minor had left it.

The manager of the establishment, Shiela Marie Uy, told reporters she cannot issue any statement on the incident without permission from the top management of the Mercury Drug.