Niño’s mother unsure whether to keep him

THE mother of baby Niño  is  unsure if she is ready to  get   him back after leaving her newborn son in the care of strangers in Cebu City last week.

The mother, a 38-year-old laundrywoman, suddenly showed up yesterday, filled with longing for her child but confused.

“Gimingaw ko’g insakto niya. Ambi nako’g ma-agwanta ra kung ako siya’ng biyaan (I miss him very much. I thought I could endure it if I would  let him go),” the mother told Cebu Daily News.

She was able to hold theinfant  in her arms for a while.

Social worker Neds Noel said they brought the mother to the nursery in  the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7), after she went looking for  the boy in the Sto. Nino barangay hall, where she had turned him over to the  barangay captain last week, using a fake name and a false story about a stranger abandoning the baby in a Ceres bus she rode.

Noel said the mother will undergo counseling.

“As of now, we cannot give her the child, even if she asks for Niño,” she said.

The mother was emotional as she asked to see her son.

Noel said the mother was unsure whether he would get him back or give him up for adoption.

She said the mother admitted that she was  confused and desperate when she left the baby in Sto. Niño barangay hall last Tuesday, hoping that kind persons would accept him.

The laundrywoman said she lives with the child’s father, a construction worker residing in  Cebu City.

They are not married.

The man has children with another woman and refused to support Nino.

Noel said the mother has has her own four  children aged 11 to 14 years old in Bantayan island in the care of her mother.

Noel said baby Niño will remain in DSWD custody until the woman decides for her child.

She said the mother was unaware of the publicity over the discovery of the baby and found out he was in the DSWD only after  Sto Niño  barangay captain Pancho Ramirez told her he  gave the baby to socia workers.

Noel said they would  assess if the mother is fit to take charge of the baby.Noel said they received a lot of calls from persons  asking to  adopt Niño. Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya