Balilihan Mayor Pureza Chatto clarified this morning that none of the money stolen from the town’s treasurer’s office on Monday came from payments for application and renewal of business permits.

According to Chatto, P92,000  of the stolen P97,000 was allocated as salary of several town hall employees while the remaining P5,000 was personal cash of the office’s disbursement officer.

Chatto assured the town’s taxpayers that none of the money they directly paid was stolen as the treasurer’s office had been given orders to deposit collected money on a daily basis.

Both the Balilihan police and treasurer’s office have furnished reports which will be submitted to the Bureau of Treasury as the local government unit seeks for reimbursement of the stolen amount, said Chatto.

Meanwhile, the town’s policemen, in their continuing investigation, have collected fingerprint samples from employees of the treasurer’s office.

Police have also found two crowbars which were possibly used to open the two safety vaults which contained the stolen money.

However, authorities have yet to confirm whether the crime was an inside job, which some have speculated to be the case.

The treasurer’s office inside the Balilihan town hall was allegedly burglarized in the wee hours of Monday, almost at the same time as the burglary of the Anda treasurer’s office.

Around P300,000 was reportedly stolen from the Anda treasurer’s office. (Allen Doydora)