THE POLITICAL Science Forum (TPSF) Community Development (CommDev) lost to an alleged thief a total of P 12,200 inside the St. Raymund de Peñafort Building last Nov.16, a closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed.
TPSF President Juancho Martinez told the Flame that the incident took place between 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the second floor lockers area in front of the faculty room.
Some P 10,200 of the stolen money was allotted for the society’s community development project, “The Youth Is, The Youth Can, The Youth Will 1.0,” in Nagcarlan, Laguna, which pushed through last. Nov. 20. The other P 2,000 was the personal money of the CommDev head.
Martinez requested the anonymity of the head as the investigation is still underway.
Authorities are still investigating the lone suspect’s identity, as they are determining if the male suspect is a legitimate Artlet or an outsider.
The CCTV footage recovered from the UST Security Office revealed that the suspect is wearing the prescribed Artlet uniform but does not have an identification card.
The video showed the culprit was walking back and forth the area. “Paikot-ikot siya sa second floor, [at] aligagang-aligaga,” Martinez said.
The CommDev head, who was in charge of the funds, kept the money inside a small sling bag while waiting for her thesis adviser at a bench in front of room 207.
When the victim saw her thesis adviser pass by, she left her bag on the bench, along with other bags, and hurriedly followed her adviser inside the faculty room.
Martinez said the culprit immediately grabbed the bag containing the funds, and hid it in one of the open lockers near the women’s comfort room.
After taking almost all the money, and leaving only a few coins inside, the man threw the bag back at the bench when no one was looking.
The incident took about 30 minutes, Martinez said.
The victim only noticed that the money was missing after her evening class, when she went to reimburse the funds to one of the society’s assistant heads.
Martinez said there is a possibility that the thief was not from the Faculty of Arts and Letters and was only pretending to be a student because the CCTV footage showed the suspect came from outside the Faculty and did not enter classrooms.
“Hindi siya case ng kapabayaan. Ang nangyari kasi kaka-retrieve ‘yung pera from Ma’am Yanga (Assoc. Prof Analiza Yanga) para gamitin sa Nov. 20 community development project namin. ‘Yung question doon, alam ba nung magnanakaw na may pera doon at kaya niya ninakaw, kaya niya kinuha ‘yung sling bag, or ‘yung bag lang talaga kasi ‘yung nakita niyang bag na madaling nakawan,” Martinez said.
The society already filed a report to the UST Security Office and the Dean’s Office. F – KRYSTAL GAYLE R. DIGAY
When large amounts of money are involved, dapat lang you take care of it with most diligence. Di lang basta pwede pabayaan, the fact na iniwan is napabayaan mo sia. Never rest assure na walang kukuha.