Trusted driver arrested for theft of over P1M worth of hypertension medicines

MANILA, Philippines—Trusted by his boss for eight years, a driver was arrested over the weekend for allegedly stealing more than a million pesos worth of drugs for hypertension.

Bonnie Maniego, 26, was collared at an apartment in Barangay (village) Masagana, Project 4, on Saturday upon the complaint of his employer, businessman Ricardo Castillo.

Inspector Alan dela Cruz, theft and robbery chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said the driver allegedly stole the drugs with the help of a friend, Ramon Almadin.

Castillo owned a pharmaceutical and medical supplies business and had employed Maniego as a driver and sales clerk for eight years.

The businessman claimed that on Saturday morning, he discovered that three boxes containing 7,200 pieces of hydralazine hydrochloride were missing from his house in Project 4.

The medicines, prescribed for hypertension, were worth P1,044,000.

Upon discovering the theft, the businessman confronted his househelper, Jojie Gargar.

The helper said she saw Maniego and Almadin take the medicines and load it into a white Toyota Grandia van on Friday afternoon.

Dela Cruz and his five-man team consisting of Senior Police Officer 1 Kristo Romualdo, Police Officer 3 Clarence Escobal, PO2 Dandy Pascacio, PO2 Arman Labrador and PO1 Melardo Abbang first went to Avenida, Manila and then to Capas, Tarlac in search of Maniego.

But in Tarlac, the suspect’s neighbors told the operatives that their target had left and was already going back to Manila.

The policemen then went to Maniego’s rented room in Project 4 and chanced upon the driver inside his room.

Recovered were 5,030 pieces of the hypertension medicine worth P729,350 and the Toyota Grandia, which was supposedly used to transport the stolen drugs.

Maniego will be subjected to inquest proceedings for qualified theft, while the still at large Almadin will be charged with theft.