Abandoned infant rescued near plantation in Kidapawan City

KIDAPAWAN CITY –– An abandoned baby boy, estimated to be about four-months-old, was found crying beside the road near a banana plantation here on Tuesday afternoon and rescued by barangay officials, a police official said.

Lt. Col. Ramil Hojilla, Kidapawan City police director, said a grade school pupil who passed by the Dole Stanfilco plantation at Sitio Panabang, Barangay Binoligan found the infant crying and crawling beside the road and went to inform barangay officials about it.

Village officials who rescued the child found him soaked wet from a recent downpour. They changed his clothes and fed him with infant formula before turning him over to the police for documentation.

The police immediately coordinated with the City Social Welfare and Development Office for the custody of the child even as authorities hoped the parents would come forward to claim him.

“The baby was unsteady because he was very wet due to the heavy downpour in the area,” Hojilla said, quoting the report from the barangay officials.

He said the infant appeared healthy, with no sign of bruises on his body.

Police suspected the infant could have been abandoned by his mother.

“Maybe the mother decided to abandon the child in this place, considering that this area is commonly used by people going to the village,” Hojilla added.

Daisy Gaviola, assistant city social welfare and development officer, said the child had been temporarily placed under the custody of the Crisis Intervention Center in Barangay Magsaysay here.

“We are now preparing the documents for possible turnover of the abandoned child to our center in Koronadal City,” Gaviola said.

She said the child would be placed in the Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Koronadal City to give him the needed attention and probably prepare his papers for possible adoption.

Gaviola also said the Crisis Intervention Center in Kidapawan catered only to abused women and children and not abandoned children.

She said that if parents would come to get the child, they would be advised to proceed to RSCC.

“They will have to undergo a very tough process (before they could take the child back) because the parents will be evaluated if they are capable of rearing and taking care of the child,” Gaviola said.

No one has yet come forward to claim the child./lzb