An infant believed to be three days old was found floating headless and left leg decapitated in the Butuanon River, near sitio Kalderohan, barangay Maguikay in Mandaue City yesterday morning.
Police and personnel from the Emergency and Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) responded to a call from a concerned citizen around 8 a.m. about the infant floating in the river.
When found, the infant’s umbilical cord was still attached to the body.
Rescuers believed that the child’s head and left leg may have been torn off by the strong current.
Senior Insp. Meche Gabod, chief of Casuntingan police station ordered the Women’s Desk to check the records of pregnant women in the health centers in Maguikay, Casuntingan and Cabancalan and identify those scheduled to give birth this month.
Gabod added that the mother of the infant can held liable for infanticide once proven that the child was killed after she gave birth. If founf that the baby was aborted, the mother may be held liable of abortion.
Infanticide is a high crime punishable by the maximum penalty under the Revised Penal Code of reclusion perpetua or imprisonment of 20 years and one day to 40 years.
According to Francis Tan, Maguikay barangay captain, he will be coordinating with other barangay captains near the area find the perpetrator of the ghastly crime./with reports from Correspondent Fe Marie D. Dumaboc