Girl, 11, reunited with family after three-year abduction by Pa’s friends

ILOILO CITY – An 11-year-old girl was reunited with her family, three years after she was abducted in Gingoog City, Misamiz Oriental and was brought here in Iloilo by his father’s friends in 2015.

Members of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) Visayas served arrest warrants to Cherry Mae Patiño Babao 20, of Zamboanga del Sur, and her live-in partner Emran Gaeon Laguindab for allegedly abducting the minor only identified as “Nene”.

Babao was arrested while Laguindab remains at large.

Anne Rapunzel Ganzon of the Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU) of Iloilo City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) said Monday that Nene was brought by the couple in Iloilo three years ago and had since been introduced as their daughter.

The couple allegedly forced the girl to sell pirated DVD copies of movies.

Laguindab would purportedly hit the girl if she could not sell a lot of pirated DVDs, prompting the girl to stay out late at night just to sell more.

“For several times, the child was apprehended by our task force for violation of curfew ordinance. She was turned over to her ‘parents’,” Ganzon said.

Ganzon also said she helped Nene get her documents so that she could be enrolled in a public school.

However, she noted, she could not find any records of Nene.

Babao and Laguindab later admitted that Nene was not their daughter after they failed to provide authorities her birth records.

“We coordinated with the authorities to locate the parents and we discovered that the father is a pedicab driver in Gingoog City and her mother has passed away. She is the only child of the couple,” Ganzon said.

It was learned that the suspects were friends of Nene’s father, and were living with them before they abducted and brought Nene to Iloilo.

“The father had no idea where the child was and who took her. Now they are reunited,” Ganzon said.   /kga