CEBU CITY – The Land Transportation Office-Central Visayas (LTO-7) will help in the efforts to recover the money that several people took after it fell from the backpack of a collector at the South Road Properties (SRP) here on Tuesday, July 4. LTO-7 chief Glen Galario said the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) has requested their assistance in tracing the owners of the vehicles who stopped in the area and picked up money that had scattered all over the road. Galario said the persons who scrambled to pick up money could be identified by checking the license plates of the vehicles that stopped in the area. “The assistance that we can provide to the police is to help find whoever the owners of the cars, motorcycles and then it’s up to them to recover the money,” said Galario. The money that scattered across the road was part of the P4 million that was stuffed in the backpack of John Mark Barrientos who was driving a motorcycle on his way to his office in Mandaue City. Cash spilled into the road when Barrientos’ backpack got destroyed. Several motorists stopped and scrambled to pick up money. While some returned the money that they got, some drove off. At least P1.2 million is yet to be retrieved. “We have footage that captured the incident. The police provided us with CCTV footage and we have a list of plate numbers that we can review,” Galario said. Police Col. Ireneo Dalogdog, chief of CCPO, reiterated that the persons who took money and did not return it will be face theft charges. Several persons have already shown up at the Mambaling Police Station and returned the money they got during the incident. “We will do our best to recover the missing money. We are in the process of identifying the people who drove off with the money. Once we identify them, we will file charges if they refuse to cooperate,” Dalogdog said.