ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 12 June) – An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who is a physician by profession has lost P1.27 million in cash when he accidentally left his bag at the office of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in this city on Wednesday, police said.
Chief Insp. Ariel Huesca, spokesman of the Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO), identified the OFW as Dr. Angus Aranan, 48, a resident of Paragas Drive in Barangay Talon-Talon.
Huesca said that Aranan accidentally left his bag containing cash comprising of $26,000 and P143,000 as well as clothes when he went to the office of OWWA Wednesday morning in Barangay Canelar to make some transactions.
Huesca said that Aranan remembered that he forgot his bag at the OWWA when he was about to make deposits at a nearby bank.
When Aranan rushed back, his bag was already missing, Huesca said.
He said a review of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera showed that the bag was taken by Rafael Hernandez, a security guard detailed at OWWA. But Hernandez, a native of Sta. Maria in Bulacan, has already left the OWWA office by then “even though he has not completed his tour of duty,” according to Huesca.
Policemen rushed to Hernandez’s residence in Barangay Canelar here Wednesday afternoon, but the security guard and his family have already abandoned their home, Huesca said.
He added that neighbors have seen the Hernandez family leaving around 1 p.m.