Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Monday, July 3, that the Bacolod City government will close down the junk shop where cell site batteries of telecommunication firms were recovered last week.
The mayor said they are just waiting for the documents and the recommendation of the Bacolod City police.
This is a warning to all, we have to draw the line, if we allow this nothing will happen, he said.
The police seized of 151 stolen cell site batteries of telecommunication firms worth P15.1 million from three suspects and a junk shop in Bacolod City on Thursday, June 29.
The three arrested persons Erwin Aribato, 30, Romelyn Quiatchon, 26, and Joseph Villanueva, 30, of Brgy. Banago, Bacolod City, were turned over to the Mabinay police where theft charges have been filed against them, City Legal Officer Romeo Carlos Ting Jr. said.
The three were caught in the act of selling the batteries to JLC Junkshop/ILC surplus owned and operated by Dennis Coo Jr., Col. Noel Aliño, Bacolod police director, said.
Confiscated from the suspects were fifteen 12 volts 180AH batteries valued at P1,500,000 that were stolen in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, the police report said.
Seized from the JLC Junkshop/ILC Surplus storage were 136 Globe and Smart telecommunication batteries valued at P13,600,000, the police added.
Aliño said the telecommunication firms who own the batteries are working with the police in filing charges against the junkshop owner.
After the filing of the charges they will submit the documents to the mayor, which he hopes will be by Tuesday, Aliño said.*