COULD it be that individuals who forced their way through several offices of lawmakers last weekend are also employees of the Legislature?
At least three lawmakers interviewed by Variety yesterday were looking at this angle. Police, for their part, had not come out with details of their investigation.
The three lawmakers believe that the intruders did not come from the main door of the Legislative Building on Capitol Hill but through the backdoor of one of the offices of the lawmakers.
Rep. Stanley T. Torres, R-Saipan, said that when he accompanied the police in inspecting every room last Sunday, they found out that only the backdoor of the office of Senate Floor Leader Joaquin G. Adriano, D-Tinian, and the door near the restroom at the west side of the building were closed but not locked.
“This gives the impression that somebody working in the Legislature broke through the doors of the offices. It also makes you suspicious that they are just looking for some documents and not valuables just like what Sen. (Pete P.) Reyes was saying because the intruders did not get interested in getting his box full of expensive jewelry,” Torres said.
Adriano said his staff told him they locked the backdoor of his office last Wednesday. However, he said the lock at that door sometimes does not work “especially when you don’t check that it is really locked.”
He said the intruder probably entered through Torres’s backdoor. “(Torres) was the one who found everything,” he added.
A senior lawmaker who requested anonymity said he had already talked to an investigator who also suspects “that someone from the Legislature did it.”
Reyes, R-Saipan, urged the burglars to return his laptop “if they did not discover any incriminating information in it.”
“They can send it to P.O. Box 500129 care of Sen. Pete P. Reyes. Before they return my laptop, they should first make sure that all fingerprints are wiped out. The laptop is government property and we don’t have enough funds to replace it,” he said.
Senate President Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota, said the leadership had already instructed the Legislative Bureau to conduct an inventory to find out what items were lost.
He said they will conduct regular spot checks and other ways to tighten security in the building.
