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By JIGGER J. JERUSALEM and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .

AUTHORITIES yesterday pressed charges against a former pawnshop manager who was arrested for the loss of some P8.3 million in jewelry and cash in a burglary in Barangay Carmen over the weekend.

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Charged with theft before the City Prosecutor’s Office was 26-year-old John Paul Cruz of Westgate Subdivision in Barangay Lumbia.

Cruz was arrested by officers from the Carmen police at his home in Lumbia on Sunday evening.

Maj. Evan Viñas, city police spokesperson, said Cruz was a former branch manager of Palawan Pawnshop on Vamenta Boulevard, Carmen, who was fired for alleged misappropriation of company funds six months ago.

It was not immediately known how much Cruz allegedly embezzled, but Viñas said the company did not push through with the filing of a case against the suspect.

But on Saturday night, according to a police report, Cruz allegedly ran off with over P8 million in jewelry and over P500 thousand in cash taken from the pawnshop’s vault.

The report said Cruz used a thin plastic card to open the pawnshop’s main door. Police said the suspect entered “without any force of entry.”

Inside the pawnshop, Cruz was allegedly able to get hold of a set of keys to open two locks of the vault before finally opening it with a combination lock that was unchanged after he left the company, Viñas said.

Cruz, he said, also took the closed-circuit television camera recording, and threw it into the river.

“After taking away the cash and jewelry, the suspect boarded a habal-habal driven by a still unidentified individual,” he added.

Viñas said the suspect told police he gave the cash to the driver of the motorcycle that was used as a getaway vehicle, although authorities are still verifying Cruz’s claims.

Police said they recovered some P319,300 in cash and over 1,200 pieces of jewelry from the suspect.

“Iya na kunong nasgasto ang uban ug iya sab kunong gihatagan ang habal-habal driver. Mao nang kapin sa P300 thousand na lang ang atong na-recover nga cash,” Viñas said.

Viñas said Cruz’s reason for allegedly breaking into the pawnshop was that he feared that his wife would leave him for becoming broke.

He said the suspect’s family is living a modest life. Their only vehicle now is a motorcycle and, aside from working, they are also engaged in selling dried fish.

Viñas said it was the suspect’s wife, who is a Palawan Pawnshop manager in another branch, who convinced Cruz to confess to the police.

At a detention cell at the Maharlika police headquarters, a remorseful Cruz confessed to the crime but opted not to give details.

He said he hoped the owner of Palawan Pawnshop would not pursue the case against him.

“Ingon man tong tag-iya nga basta mauli ang kuwarta ug mga alahas, wala na kunoy kaso,” Cruz said.

Investigators are now also looking into the alleged laxity on the part of the pawnshop management.

“They (management) did not change the vault code, making it easily accessible to the suspect,” he said, adding that everyone who works at that branch, including Cruz’s wife, are all considered “persons of interest.”

Viñas said investigators were looking into the possibility that some pawnshop workers aided Cruz in the burglary.

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