A thief broke into the home of Mayor Agustin Perdices at San Jose Street, Dumaguete City the other Friday night while the mayor and his son's family were fast asleep, a belated report reaching the DAILY STAR said.

Perdices admitted that their house was broken into, and said that the thief entered the house and left unnoticed with his son's cellphone.

"That was rather very strange because only the cellphone was taken," he said. "My son's watch was also there -- it was more expensive than the cellphone but it was not stolen," Perdices said.

The mayor said the thief also did not steal his daughter-in-law's jewelry. Nor was the thief interested in looking for cash.

"There was a big amount of money in the house at that time because it was a weekend and the sales of the [Mamia's] restaurant couldn't be deposited in the bank, but the thief was only attracted to the cellphone. The drawers were not ransacked," Perdices said.

However, a check with the police yielded nothing. When told about it, outgoing City Police Chief C/Insp. Manuel Hidalgo combed through the police blotter and asked his uniformed and intelligence personnel.

Not one of them had heard of such incident.

It turned out that the mayor did not report the incident to the police. He did not reveal his reasons for not telling the police about it. "We're doing our own investigation but we don't have any leads yet," Perdices said.

He said they have not ruled out the possibility of an "inside job." Perdices later issued a tall order to newly-appointed chief of the Philippine National Police in Dumaguete City Supt. Deonard Carlos to "show results" in the city's campaign against crimes in his first 90 days in office that took effect March 1.

Perdices's order came as five more women and one man fell victims in less than 24 hours, from February 28 to March 1, to the spate of snatchings and hold-ups hitting the city.

He explained that the media in Oriental Negros are concentrated in

Dumaguete City and would monitor his movement for results.

He was, however, quick to point out that the city police needs the cooperation of the people to maintain the peace and order condition in the community.

Superintendent Carlos, who was assigned to the regional PNP command in Cebu, replaced Chief Inspector Emmanuel Hidalgo who has been transferred to the provincial command of the Philippine National Police to handle "operations concerns".

Perdices selected Carlos from a list of five names provincial PNP director Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe had recommended to replace Hidalgo.

Buenafe said Dumaguete City is a "special concern" of the PNP command because it is the "show window" of the province.*AP

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