CEBU CITY – Theft charges could be filed against the people who will not return the money that they found scattered all over the South Road Properties (SRP) here on Tuesday morning, July 4. Police Major Bethooven Taneo, chief of the Mambaling Police Station, said they are in the process of identifying the persons who drove off after picking up some cash that was part of the P4 million that a collector was carrying while driving on SRP. The money that was stuffed in the backpack of John Mark Barrientos spilled all over the road when the bag's zipper got busted. Taneo said the bag contained at least P4 million cash that was supposed to be brought by Barrientos to their office in Mandaue City. Barrientos drove a motorcycle to transport the money. Taneo said some individuals have already returned the money that they picked from the road. “One person returned P13,000 to the Carbon Police Station. Another person also came to our station to return P21,000 and another one returned P12,000,” said Taneo. Taneo said 70 to 80 percent of the money that was kept in the bag spilled into the road. Some P1.2 million has yet to be retrieved, Taneo said. “We are appealing to those persons who took some cash to return it so that we won’t reach the point where we will resort to filing charges,” said Taneo. Taneo said they have ways to identify those persons as they were able to secure several video footage that captured the incident. “The company is willing to file charges. We are willing to assist them in any way we can and the video footage will be a big help in identifying the persons who drove with the money,” said Taneo. Some video footage showed wads of money scattered all over the road at SRP. Some motorists stopped to pick some money but instead of returning it to the collector, they drove off, police said. Taneo said it was possible that some of the money fell into the sea as the area where the incident happened is windy. Barrientos was driving 60 to 70 kilometers per hour when the bag “exploded,” said Taneo. Taneo said the incident should serve as a lesson to companies. “This is a lesson-learned for them. They should implement stricter measures when transporting money, especially huge amounts of money. They should not use an ordinary type of transportation. We would suggest that they coordinate with security agencies,” said Taneo.