LEGAZPI CITY -- Four offices in the municipal hall of Malinao, Albay, which is just adjacent to a police station there, were ransacked by unidentified men between Friday and Sunday, the mayor said in an interview Tuesday morning.

        Malinao Mayor Billy Ciriola said he was surprised and saddened to see the havoc on his first day of work after the holiday vacation.

        Doors and windows were destroyed and important documents jumbled in the engineering office and offices of the municipal treasurer, the accountant, and the assessor.

        The mayor said he immediately called members of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) to investigate the incident.

        The Malinao police was yet to issue its initial investigation report on Tuesday but Ciriola quoted police officers as saying that the motive of the intruders could have not just been simple robbery.

        Ciriola said there were no valuables lost, except for small amounts of money left by some employees in their drawers.

        “It was as if they were in search for important documents. I totally have no idea what it was they wanted or who could be behind this,” Ciriola said in a mobile phone interview.

        Despite damages, employees got back to work Monday and checked if there were documents missing after the incident.

        It also seemed the attack was planned since the intruders knew all the passageways in the area, Ciriola added.

        The mayor said he was not discounting the possibility that what happened was an inside job.

        Ciriola said, the intruders had two entry points making it appear they came in two groups.

        Two window grills were destroyed in second and ground floors at the back of the municipal hall, where they were suspected to have made entry points.

        The mayor, a first-termer, said this was the first time it happened in his town.

        Malinao, a fourth class town in Albay province, has 29 villages and a population of almost 40,000 people.