British woman held for detaining 5 kids tried to put up foster home

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines—A British woman arrested last week for allegedly detaining five children in her house tried to put up a foster home for neglected children here, said an official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Central Luzon region.

Adelina Apostol, DSWD regional director, said Lilian May Thomson, 65, founded Save the Children of the Streets Foundation (Scots) in Subic town in Zambales province several years ago.

But the group was removed from the roster of social welfare and development agencies for failing to comply with DSWD requirements, Apostol said.

In a June 25 letter to the district office of the National Bureau of Investigation here, Apostol said Thomson was the executive director of Scots, which was not licensed to operate as a foster home.

Apostol, however, did not say when the foundation was established and delisted.

“She (Thomson) is not a licensed foster mother to be allowed to care for children,” she said.

Apostol also sought the help of the NBI to rescue the five children from Thomson’s custody on July 3.

Three girls (all age 7), a 5-year-old boy and a 6-month-old boy were rescued from Thomson’s house in Subic, said Arnel Dalumpines, NBI officer in charge in this city.

Dalumpines said NBI agents found Thomson’s house “untidy and unkempt” with empty bottles of liquor scattered in the living room.

Thomson was charged with serious illegal detention in the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court.

In a sworn affidavit, Paulo Calip, NBI special investigator and one of the arresting officers, said one of the girls was found “tied to a wooden chair surrounded with filthy objects.”

Calip said the other four children were found inside a room “with messy and disorderly surroundings.”

“Such living conditions are detrimental to the welfare and development of the children … . They were clearly being neglected by the suspect,” Calip said.

In a separate sworn affidavit, Rosemarie Hebron, a DSWD social worker, said the girl who was tied to a chair “with her food scattered all over the place” was a “special child.”

Fr. Shay Cullen, an Irish priest who runs Preda Foundation Inc., a shelter for abused children here, said the children, who are now in a safe house, had undergone medical examination after they were rescued.

Cullen said foreigners had been seen coming and going to Thomson’s house, prompting him and the Preda social workers to suspect that the children were being abused.

The medical certificates issued on July 4 by Dr. Ana Figuerres of James L. Gordon Memorial Hospital here showed that the three girls had been sexually abused.

Thomson was also charged with direct assault by the NBI agents when she allegedly threw a spear at the social workers, Cullen said.