A 79-year-old retired overseas Filipino worker has accused her one-time personal driver of making off with gold jewelry worth an estimated P2,371,000.00, prompting a qualified theft complaint now under examination by police in Mangaldan, Pangasinan.
According to RMN Networks, the suspect named in the case is a 41-year-old man who, like the complainant, lives in Barangay Embarcadero. Investigators say his whereabouts remain unknown. He is reported to have walked away from his own family and gone off with a woman he was allegedly seeing.
The complainant told authorities she first realized something was wrong on March 13, 2026, when she opened an unlocked cabinet in her bedroom and found that several pieces were missing. The haul included gold necklaces, bracelets, bangles, earrings, rings, and other items.
A possible window into the crime came from a witness who claimed to have spotted the suspect climbing through the bedroom window at 7:30 a.m. on February 10, 2026, and taking the jewelry.
Other threads emerged during the inquiry. The suspect’s wife reportedly told investigators that her husband had been seen with a substantial sum of cash and was said to be financially supporting another woman. Friends of the elderly complainant also noticed an abrupt shift in the man’s way of living beginning February 2026, around the same window when the jewelry disappeared.
The case reached the Mangaldan Municipal Police Station on the morning of June 10, 2026, when the victim went to the station in person at roughly 9:30 a.m. to file her report.
Qualified theft, the charge being weighed against the suspect, carries heavier penalties than ordinary theft under Philippine law because it involves a breach of trust, such as the relationship between an employer and a household worker or driver.
