MANILA - Outgoing Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Susan Castrence has admitted being the diplomat that a Seoul newspaper said was caught shoplifting in a US base commissary last year but denied she stole anything.

Castrence, who was at one time consul general in Washington D.C., told the Department of Foreign Affairs that the allegation that she was caught on the store video stealing a karaoke machine and bottle of perfume in November 2006 was “unfounded.”

The Herald story quoted a source at the US Provost Marshal’s office in Seoul as saying the shoplifting suspect was a Filipino diplomat but did not give a name. In her statement released by DFA, Castrence said she went to the PX Commissary at Yongsan Base in November to shop for Christmas gifts for her staff and to buy a kraoke chip with children’s songs for her granddaughter in Manila.

She said she brought with her to the store another karaoke chip which she also purchased from the same store months earlier to make sure she would not be buying the same chip.
After finding out that no new children’s chips were available, she returned her chip to her handbag. “This must have been the moment caught by the camera which gave the impression of shoplifting," she said.
At the perfume section, she said she sprayed her wrist with a Gucci tester bottle but decided not to buy one because it was expensive.
As she was about to leave the store, a security officer met her at the exit and told her that she was being suspected of shoplifting.
She said she allowed the security officer to look in her handbag. She said the guard found only the chip with a list of songs and no perfume.
Castrence said the alleged visit of US base officials to the Philippine embassy in Seoul to show her the store security video reported by the Korean Herald never took place.

The article, said General Burwell Bell, commander of the United Nations Command and the US Forces in Korea (USFK), was concerned about the shoplifting incident that allegedly involved the diplomat.

Castrence said she would not damage her reputation and that of the Philippines for a mere karaoke chip.
US base commissaries in foreign countries and in the US often allow foreign diplomatic personnel to shop in their stores.