Tan has to wait for 2 weeks; Jewelry turned over to mayor
Two weeks.
That’s how long the Tan family will have to wait before a decision is made about the gold and diamond jewelry found by scavengers in the Umapad dumpsite in Mandaue City.
The jewelry pieces were turned over for safekeeping to Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes yesterday by the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) of the Mandaue City police.
An hour later, the Tan family’s lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna presented an affidavit of claim and ownership for the jewelry.
But the mayor said he wanted to wait for other claimants to come forward.
A two-week period of public announcements is provided in the Civil Code, which says it’s the duty of the mayor of the locality where the discovery is made to declare the lost-and-found items.
The first claimant, 83-year-old Chinese-Cebuano businessman Vicente Tan, waited at a fast-food restaurant near Mandaue City Hall with a caregiver in tow while his lawyer appeared in the mayor’s office.
Clad in a checkered polo shirt, Tan just smiled when reporters tried to interview him.
He was fetched later by Dela Cerna and his family following the lawyer’s meeting with Cortes.
Tan’s family owns Chikito’s Bazaar, a general merchandise retailer in downtown Cebu City, and Inday’s Dried Mangoes in Mandaue City.
Tan’s class ring, indicating he was graduate of batch 1952 of the University of San Carlos, was among the lost-and-found jewelry pieces deposited with the mayor.
Police had traced the ring to Tan, whose name was engraved on it.
Earlier, Tan’s lawyer explained that the ring and other jewelry was in a box that was accidentally tossed in the trash when the family cleaned out Tan’s bedroom.
The turnover was witnessed by police officials and City Legal Officer Giovanni Tianero.
Cortes said the discovery of the jewelry will be published for two weeks in local dailies with notices posted in public places.
Claimants should present valid ID cards, receipts and other documents proving their ownership of the jewelry.
Tianero said if no one claims the jewelry after six months, the city will auction off the jewelry.
About 50 percent of the proceeds will go to the city and the rest to the finders such as Rodrigo Corta and his fellow scavengers of the Umapad dumpsite.
“We must put things in perspective … if the scavengers were honest, they should have turned it over immediately. We don’t want to give them false hope,” Cortes said.
The mayor said the police will question Corta and the other cavengers, the garbage collectors and those involved in the incident.
Mayor Cortes said all claimants will be investigated by police to verify their claims.
Dela Cerna was with Tan’s only daughter, Sherley, her younger brother Danny and their niece when he went to the mayor’s office to present the family’s claim.
Dela Cerna told reporters that the mayor advised them to return on Feb. 3 to present their claim anew.
He said the elder Tan was unable to make the claim himself because he suffered memory lapses after undergoing surgery of his head last year.
De la Cerna said Tan’s wife also suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
He said Tan’s wife had asked their maids to clean their house last November, but her husband refused to include his room.
De la Cerna said the wife ordered her husband’s room cleaned up after seeing termites there.
He said Tan’s wife ordered the maids to burn all termite-infested items and dump the others.
“You ask the garbage collectors, on Jan. 12 they only collected garbage from Tan’s house and no other,” dela Cerna said.
Scavengers found the jewelry inside a garbage sack the following day, Jan. 13.
Dela Cerna said the Tan family is willing to let Corta and the scavengers keep P36,500—the cash turned over to the police from what remained of their pawnshop and sale proceeeds—as a reward.
