Gov’t official loses cash in LTO break-in

MANILA, Philippines—An official of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) lost P135,000 in cash she left behind in her office at the LTO compound along East Avenue in Quezon City over the long weekend.

Case investigator SPO2 Mariano Turiano of the Quezon City Police District said the robbers took off with the money found in the office of Leda Jose, head of the LTO plates unit, and ransacked three other offices next to that of Jose’s unit on the second floor.

The money was stashed in a bag stored in a steel cabinet, Jose told police.

No other items appeared to be missing from the equipment unit, the supply unit and the property office, but Turiano said the items and furniture inside the room were in disarray.

“The table drawers and the cabinets had been opened,” he said.

The burglary was discovered at around 6 a.m. on Monday by Janette Ortega, a cleaning woman.

Ortega told police that the guard on duty had just opened the door leading to the second floor offices to allow her to clean the place before the LTO employees arrive for work.

The offices on the second floor were separated only by partitions, police said.

Upon entering the office, Ortega said she noticed that the table drawers and cabinets were open and various items were in disarray.

Turiano said the still unidentified suspects could have entered and exited through a niche in the wall built for an air-conditioning unit inside the equipment office.

He added that they found the air-conditioning unit already on the floor when police arrived to investigate the theft.

The investigator said the robbers could have entered the building by scaling the roof of the adjacent Flora Ilagan High School.