Boy hostage survivor loses right arm

THE 3-year-old boy held hostage in Toledo City last Thursday has a permanent reminder of what he lost on that fateful day.

Doctors who operated on the child had to amputate his arm due to severe cut and blood loss.

The boy  also sustained a slash in his right arm and right wrist.

He spent Christmas confined in the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and was discharged yesterday.

When Cebu Daily News him yesterday, the boy received gift toys from the nurses.

His 24-year-old mother Araceli Plando opened the box of the small toy truck and handed it to her son.

“When he woke up, he was looking for his right arm,” Plando said in Cebuano.

She just jokingly told the boy,  “Gilubong na imong bukton” (Your arm was already buried.)

Plando said her son did not speak to her for three days.

She said she just agreed to have her son’s arm removed by the doctors as long as he will be saved.

The boy was among the three young children that 30-year-old  Allan Bolo held hostage last Thursday.

Bolo had a misunderstanding with his live-in partner who already left him, which led him to invite the children to his house, tie up the two around his body with a rope while he carried the other one on his shoulder.

He was armed with two bolos and harmed one of the three children.

After six hours of futile negotiation, police shot him in the abdomen that caused his death.

The boy was supposed to attend the Christmas party at the plaza of sitio Danawan, barangay Biga, Toledo City but did not make it because of the incident.

“Bisan namatay pa to siya (Bolo), dili na mabalik ang bukton sa akong anak,” (Even though he was killed, my son will not get back his right arm),” Plando said.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia visited them in the hospital last Saturday morning and handed them baskets of goods.

Garcia also promised to take care of the hospital bills. Garcia, in a separate interview,  said she could not help but cry upon seeing the boy with only one arm left.

Plando had to quit her job as a helper in Minglanilla to take care of her son.  From the hospital, they visited Capitol to see Garcia at  3 p.m. yesterday.

Garcia gave the 3-year-old boy a small box of imported chocolates.  Araceli also received cash assistance, a basket of goods and five kilos of rice from Garcia.

Araceli, her 57-year-old father Melecio, and the boy were then brought to Toledo City on board a service vehicle provided by the Capitol. /Rhea Ruth V. Rosell, Correspondent