‘Manila girl’ found wandering on streets of San Pedro, Laguna

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—An 8-year-old child who claims to be a resident of Manila was found wandering on the streets in San Pedro, Laguna province, Monday night, police said.

Authorities have yet to determine whether the child was abducted or she simply got lost after running away from home, noting the conflicting statements she had given.

This developed as Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima ordered police units to immediately act on reports of missing children and not to wait for 24 hours before dealing with such cases.

Purisima issued the order following reports of several children going missing in Metro Manila over the past few weeks.

In Laguna, San Pedro police chief Supt. Chito Bersaluna said Danica Elosentales was found in Barangay Sampaguita around 10:15 p.m. by Sgt. Jesus Botor Jr., a local resident. The soldier brought the child to village authorities, who in turn took her to the police station the same night.

PO2 Marie Franz of the Women and Children’s Protection Desk said Elosentales identified her parents as Junie and Norminda from Manila.

The child initially said that a man took her and dropped her off in San Pedro, but later changed her statement and claimed that she ran away from home where she was suffering from physical abuse.

“She also could not say where exactly in Manila did she live or if she left their home on Monday or the day before that,” Franz said.

No one has come to the San Pedro police to claim the child as of Tuesday morning.  Franz said Elosentales was set to be turned over the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

A series of alleged child abductions reported in Metro Manila earlier gave rise to rumors that a crime syndicate was taking young children for their internal organs. The police denied the rumors and maintained there was no evidence that the disappearances were related.

Purisima said the PNP’s Task Group Sagip Anghel, which he created last week, will revisit and review pending cases of missing children in the capital and neighboring provinces.

“We want to introduce this new policy because so many cases of missing children are not being reported to the police,” Purisima told reporters. “In the process, we want to speed up the reaction time of our policemen.”

At present, he noted, policemen have to wait for 24 hours after a child is reported to have disappeared before they consider the child missing.

Chief Insp. Kimberly Molitas, spokesperson of the National Capital Region Police Office, said over 100 street children had been found by social workers and members of Sagip Anghel since last week. With a report from Marlon Ramos