Internet community helps reunite boy with family
By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:32:00 07/25/2008
Filed Under: Missing Persons, Internet
MANILA, Philippines—Efforts of the Internet community, particularly members of the social networking site Multiply, helped reunite three-year-old Matthew David Samudio with his family Thursday.
Samudio, who was abducted inside the Festival Mall in Alabang, was found Thursday walking around the Sta. Rosa Commercial Complex in Laguna.
He was reportedly with the same girl who took him at the Alabang mall last Tuesday.
In a TV interview, security guards in the area said they saw Samudio walking around the Sta. Rosa mall, seeking alms. Remembering the boy’s face from pictures they saw on TV, they immediately approached the two, but the girl ran away, leaving Samudio behind.
Samudio was then turned over to the Sta. Rosa police, who then informed their counterparts in Muntinlupa City that the missing boy had been found.
The victim’s father, Michael Kenji Samudio, expressed gratitude to everyone who helped in the retrieval of his son through a blog entry posted on melquita.multiply.com.
”I want to thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for helping Chuchu find his way back home. For the prayers, reposting, linking of this blog, your connections with the media and government agencies. People from all walks of life united with one goal -- to bring back my son safe and sound,’’ he said in the blog entry.
”Looking on the bright side of things, Chuchu brought out the good that was hidden in all of us for so long. Suddenly, we remembered praying. Suddenly, we began caring for people we don’t even know. We became compassionate, understanding and vigilant. If not for you people, he could have ended up as a beggar all his life,’’ he added.
The blog entry on the Samudio boy’s abduction, posted Wednesday, got more than 1,000 responses -- many from people who did not even know the family.
Even Muntinlupa Representative Ruffy Biazon committed, through a comment on the blog entry and through his own blog post, to personally monitor the case.
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