Missing Toledo woman just ran away with lover

What was first thought to be a case of abduction turned out to be a simple case of cold feet.

Lydia Pasaylo, 58, of Magsaysay Hills, Toledo City, reported to their city police station that her daughter, Maria Luz, 24, did not return home and was allegedly kidnapped by retired policeman Rudy Panlo Sr., 64, last December 22 in barangay Tubod, just as she was about to be married to her fiancé, a foreigner who had just arrived here recently.

Toledo City Police chief Supt. Leodegardo Acebedo called up the mobile phone of Maria Luz and it was Panlo Sr.'s son Panlo Jr. who answered it.

Panlo Jr. told Acebedo that Maria ran away with his father willingly as they were lovers. SPO1 Thadeo Lapening of Toledo City Police also asserted that Maria and Panlo Sr. were lovers.

Maria and Panlo Sr. eventually showed up at the Toledo City police station where Maria told her mother she was choosing Panlo Sr. over the younger Australian painter her mother was eager for her to marry.

Acebedo in his report to Cebu Police Provincial Office concluded that no kidnapping incident happened in his area of responsibility and that there was no trafficking or even seduction. - Gregg M. Rubio