QC-based think tank’s new guard turns out to be thief

MANILA, Philippines–A newly hired security guard of Ibon Foundation, a think tank based in Quezon City, was caught on camera stealing the office safe with the help of two other men Saturday night.

The police identified the guard as Rod R. Elizar, 38, who gave his address at Hobart Compound in Diliman, Quezon City. He disappeared after the theft at Ibon’s office on Timog Avenue, Barangay (village) Sacred Heart.

“The whole incident is still under investigation. The pieces of CCTV (closed circuit television) footage are being reviewed; others are still being gathered. We’re still assessing the value of the items lost in the robbery,” Ibon communications head Rhea Padilla told the Inquirer on Monday.

According to Padilla, Elizar was from Moonraker security agency, which had assured Ibon of assistance in tracking down the suspect.

Supt. Limuel Obon, chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Kamuning station, which has jurisdiction over Sacred Heart, said his men had checked Elizar’s given address but residents there maintained that no one with that name lived there.

The residents also said that before the QCPD men got there, a group of five men also arrived in the area looking for Elizar, Obon said.

Based on the initial investigation, an Ibon staff member noticed that Elizar was no longer at his post around 8:15 p.m. Saturday and later discovered the offices in disarray. When the police arrived, a review of the security videos showed the guard and his two accomplices forcibly opening the doors.

The two other men later disabled the cameras by cutting the wires, while Elizar used a piece of paper to cover the one installed at the lobby.

The three made off with the safe taken from a third-floor office, according to the foundation’s cashier, who had yet to report the amount of cash stolen, Obon said.

Obon said Elizar had just been hired by Ibon and it was his first night on duty at the office, adding: “It looked like this was his modus operandi. He has a track record. There are others looking for him.”