Mother arrested for ‘abandoning’ 4-year-old boy in dumpsite

A 30-year-old woman who was about to board a ship for Bohol with her new boyfriend was arrested by police for allegedly leaving her 4-year-old son in a dumpsite in Mandaue city.

Two neigbhors alerted police about the abandoned child in sitio Sab-a, barangay Basak last Tuesday afternoon.

The mother, Marlyn Castardo, was arrested by police who rushed to the Cebu City’s Pier 1 after rescuing the child.

Castardo told police investigators that she left her child in the care of her 80-year-old uncle for a few days to accompany her boyfriend to Bohol.

Basak Police station chief, Chief Insp. Wilson Abot said two concerned citizens, Melanie Mendoza, 44 and Cherry Comendador Ouano, 32, reported to police that a 4-year-old boy was left at a garbage dump in Basak by their neighbor.

The women said they saw the mother leave her crying son there.

When they asked where she was heading, the mother told them she was in a hurry to get to Pier 1 in Cebu City where she and her boyfriend would board a ship for Bohol.

Police said Castardo was about to board the ship when they arrived.

Her belongings were already with her boyfriend who boarded the ship first.

“How could an 80-year-old properly take care of the child? That’s why he ended up in the dump site,” said Chief Insp. Wilson Abot, chief of the Basak police station.

At the police station the Castardo pleaded to be released saying she changed her mind and would bring her child to Bohol with her boyfriend.

The mother is detained in the Subangdaku Police Station pending the filing of a charge of child abuse.

The boy was initially placed in the custody of the Department of Social Work and Development.

He was later turned over to an aunt.