Checks found in city, now a close case
THE discovery of thousands of government checks dumped in Bonuan Binloc on December 19 is now a closed case as far as the Dagupan police is concerned.
The checks have been verified to have come from a bulk of mail cargo that was loaded into a Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost) delivery van which was hijacked by its own driver and helper/courier on its way to Cabanatuan City from the central post office in Manila.
Superintendent Mateo Casupang, deputy chief of police of Dagupan, said a fax message received by the Dagupan police from Philpost provided the answers to the mystery behind those checks.
It said that registered mail matters were stashed in bags that were loaded into a Philpost L-300 delivery van en route to Cabanatuan City from Manila.
The van was diverted by the driver and the courier to barangay San Roque, Gapan, Nueva Ecija where they transferred their load into a vehicle without a plate number manned by unidentified persons.
The unmarked vehicle was later spotted by a barangay tanod on patrol there.
According to the message, the inside job was perpetrated by the driver Dionisio Inigo and Danilo Malvede, courier, who both ran away after seeing the approaching barangay tanod.
Inigo and Malvede were eventually caught after a brief chase and are now detained at the Gapan police jail. However, the vehicle where they transferred the cargo was able to get away.
The checks are reportedly for salaries, bonuses and cash gifts of government employees in Nueva Ecija and Region II, including pension checks of retirees and veterans there.
Supt. Casupang said it was believed that the vehicle proceeded to the north and detoured to Dagupan City where it dumped its cargo of two boxers and two sacks at a vacant lot, some 25 meters away from the main road, in barangay Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City in the wee hours of December 19.
He said all the checks and mail matters that were found have been inventoried and turned over to Philpost authorities through Diosdado Garcia, the agency’s supervisor in central and western Pangasinan.
It could not yet be ascertained whether the suspects were actually able to cart away anything valuable from other registered mail matters.
Supt. Casupang said the continuing investigation is now in the hands of the Gapan police and Philpost central office.
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