ILOILO – An elementary school in Oton town had been robbed, losing around P80,000 worth of electronic equipment. It was the sixth school in the province to have been looted over the past four months, police said.
Investigators have yet to identify who barged into the San Antonio-San Nicolas Elementary School in Barangay San Antonio as of this writing.
An administrative officer, 46-year-old Jose Solatorio, discovered the burglary at 6:30 a.m. on Friday.
Solatorio noticed that the cyclone wires on the windows of the classroom of teacher Azucena Planta had been cut.
The knobs of the two doors and a padlock of the office of Principal Mary Jane Jacluyan were destroyed, too, Solatorio told the police.
All the equipment discovered missing were from the office of the principal.
They included a laptop computer worth around P25,000, another laptop computer worth around P38,000, an image projector worth some P16,000, and a cooling pad, a police report showed.
“The school does not have a security guard,” said municipal police head Chief Inspector Gervinson Moyo.
Teacher Teresita Otones confirmed that they do not have a security guard.
The school does not have security cameras either, she added.
Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director, urged chiefs of police to enhance their presence around schools.
Just this Aug. 7 Ajuy National High School was looted, too.
Some P50,000 cash kept in the cashier’s office went missing. Some teachers discovered the burglary at around 7:30 a.m.
The culprits remained unidentified as of this writing.
Thieves also carted away P50,000 from the Estancia campus of the Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College (NIPSC) on July 25.
Five days later robbers ransacked another NIPSC campus in Batad town.
Chief Inspector Ciriaco Esquilarga, Batad police head, said the NIPSC management told them at 4 a.m. on July 30 that the culprits destroyed the padlocks of and barged into their finance, registrar, guidance, and supply offices.
The school lost P80,000 cash kept in a vault in the finance office.
On June 3 the West Visayas State University Lambunao campus was also looted.
School security guard Rexan Lopez discovered the robbery.
The finance and registrar’s offices were forcibly opened. The culprits took P11,000 cash.
On May 23 unidentified robbers ransacked the Dumangas campus of the Iloilo Science and Technology University in Barangay PD Monfort.
The robbers entered the cashier’s office and took P470,000 kept in a vault.
Assistant administrative officer Baltazar Depaloma discovered the burglary. (With Ian Paul Cordero/PN)
