Prov'l gov't to shoulder bills of child hurt by ma

The provincial government will shoulder the hospital bills and medicine of the six-month-old baby who survived after her mother slashed her neck in Sibonga town last Friday.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia ordered acting provincial social welfare and development officer Marivic Garces to locate Roxanne Suerte because she was not in the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center where she was reported to have been confined.

Garces said that the governor gave orders to provide financial assistance to the victims, including the burial of the five-year-old Ruzel who did not survive the attack. But Garces said that the municipality of Sibonga already paid the burial expenses of Ruzel.

Garces said they have requested the social welfare officer of Sibonga to locate the other victim so that the Capitol can give its financial assistance.

Roxanne was seriously injured while her brother Ruzel was killed instantly after their necks were slashed by their mother Sotera Suerte with a kitchen knife in sitio Balaas, barangay Tubod, Sibonga town 11 p.m. last Friday.

Suerte, who claimed she did such acts because she could no longer cope with the financial and other difficulties besetting her family, surrendered to the police after the incident.