Kidapawan chapel loses P500K to robbers; church workers fingerprinted

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato, Philippines – Police have subjected to fingerprinting staff workers of the “Jesus, the Good Shepherd” parish in Barangay Amas here following Wednesday’s robbery in which the church lost P500,000 in cash.

Earlier, Father Tony Lupiba, the parish priest, said the disappearance of the P500,000 cash from the church’s steel cabinet could have been an inside job.

“The suspects might have knowledge of the money kept inside the steel cabinet,” Lupiba told a radio station here, following the discovery of the theft.

Based on the initial police investigation, the robbers – police were still determining exactly how many as of Thursday—destroyed the parish office’s door knob, forcibly opened the steel cabinet containing the money before sneaking out.

Lupiba said the parish office was just a few meters away from the house he and the church’s workers stay in but it had no security guard.

The priest said the missing money was intended for medical supplies and operational funds for the on-going construction of the church.

The local police’s Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) said it was conducting a thorough investigation, and the fingerprinting of the workers was among the procedures it has performed so far to get the culprits.

The collected specimens will be cross-matched with those lifted from the door knob and the steel cabinet.

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