Four individuals have been charged with qualified theft in relation to the P3 million sugar heist in Bago City, Negros Occidental. The charges were filed against the drivers of the two wing vans containing 1,000 bags of sugar and two other unidentified individuals. The owner of the sugar filed the complaint against the respondents, with one of them believed to be the mastermind behind the crime. Additionally, the owner of the wing vans is filing separate charges for qualified theft and carnapping against all four respondents.
Initially, the two drivers claimed that hijackers tied them up, but they were later rescued from the wing vans, which were found parked in Barangay Pandanon, Murcia town. Upon investigation, it was discovered that no hijacking had taken place, and 965 sacks of the stolen sugar were recovered from the old warehouse of Negros Kabisig Livelihood Foundation in Barangay Busay, Bago City.
During the investigation, it was noted that the two drivers were inconsistent in their statements, and their behaviour raised suspicions. When confronted with GPS tracker reports contradicting their claims, one of the drivers offered to assist the police in recovering the sugar.
The person whom the culprits enlisted to find a warehouse and those responsible for unloading the sugar in Bago claimed that they were unaware that the sugar was stolen until the news broke. They expressed willingness to testify against the four individuals who brought the sugar to the warehouse.
One of the suspects, still at large, had previous experience as a truck driver and knowledge of cargo transportation. According to the police investigation, the two drivers picked up the sugar from the Sugar Company on Monday morning with the intention of transporting it to the BREDCO port in Bacolod City, where the wing vans would be loaded onto a vessel bound for Iloilo.
The drivers made a stop in Hinigaran to collect money for their boat fare to Iloilo. One of their accomplices joined them before proceeding to Pontevedra, where they stopped for approximately six hours. Their second accomplice joined them in Pontevedra, and together, they unloaded the sugar in Busay, Bago, between 11 p.m. on Monday and 1 a.m. on September 26.
After unloading the sugar, the empty-wing vans were driven to Murcia, where the two drivers were tied up and blindfolded by their accomplices to create the appearance of a hijacking.
