Worried dad asks public for help in finding missing 17-year-old daughter

Seventeen year old Ica Policarpio. FACEBOOK

The father of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared on Thursday in Muntinlupa City has asked for help in finding her.

Ica Policarpio, a 12th grader, was last seen at a coffee shop in a mall on East Service Road in Sucat, near her house, at 10:53 p.m. She left behind her cell phone and two laptops.

“We don’t know if it’s voluntary or involuntary [disappearance]. But we hope to find her soon. We’re getting really worried as the hours progress,” Ica’s father, Rufino Policarpio III, told the Inquirer on Friday.

According to him, Ica has yet to contact any of their relatives or her friends.

He said the coffee shop was not Ica’s usual hangout. On Thursday night, however, she went there “to work on a project.”

Her last conversation with him was around 10:45 p.m. “We were supposed to pick her up. I told her we were going to be late,” Policarpio added.

When he and his wife arrived at the coffee shop around 11:30 p.m., only Ica’s valuables were there.

When the couple asked the coffee shop staff about her whereabouts, they were told she was last seen asking the cashier if she could swap her P1,000 for smaller bills.

The electronic gadgets which were retrieved by her parents would be subjected to forensic investigation, according to Eric Distor, deputy director for intelligence of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Distor said the NBI had already sent teams to track down Ica.

Its initial investigation showed that a surveillance camera captured Ica walking toward a parking lot near a convenience store beside East Service Road.

Any information on her whereabouts may be sent to 0917-8946893. Ica was wearing a blue sweater with two white stripes on the sleeves, black jeans and white sneakers when she disappeared.