PNP downplays reports on organ-harvesting syndicate

Keep calm and don’t panic.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) has allayed the fears of Metro Manila residents amid the growing number of cases of missing children in the past few days.

According to PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, there was no truth to rumors that members of a syndicate were going around Metro Manila, abducting children to harvest their body parts.

Several TV and radio stations earlier announced that at least four children had been reported missing for weeks by their parents.

Fears that they may have been kidnapped by a group involved in the sale of internal organs were further fueled by the discovery of the decomposing body of Mark Elgin Escarmosa, a missing 4-year-old whose dismembered body was recovered from a ravine in Pililia, Rizal, on Friday.

“I think I have yet to receive a report that there are individuals snatching children to take their organs. Those are [based only on] text messages,”

Purisima said in a news briefing on Friday.

The police said that Escarmosa may have accidentally fallen into the ravine near their house in Villa Quintana, Barangay (village) Malaya, when he went missing on March 19.

Senior Superintendent Renato Gumban, chief of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group, said there was no evidence showing that the cases of missing children in several areas in Metro Manila were related to each another and if these were the handiwork of a syndicate.

Purisima urged the parents and relatives of the missing persons to immediately go to the nearest police station and ask for help in locating their loved ones instead of just reporting it to media men.

While members of the media could help them find their missing relatives, he said the police would not be able to conduct a probe if investigators were not formally informed of the case.

Purisima reminded Metro Manila residents to always be security-conscious and “not give criminals the opportunity to victimize them.”

He also asked the public to directly report to him, by calling or texting 0917-8475757, erring policemen who fail to swiftly act on cases of abduction or missing persons.

“Again, we call on the public to put us to the test and see for themselves how the police are  working for them,” he said.