CEBU, Philippines - The 12-year-old boy who violated the airport security and slipped inside a plane in his desire to see his mother in Manila is soon to have his dream come true.
After having caught at the airport for boarding the plane without a ticket or a boarding pass, the boy will finally see his mother, whom he got separated from for two years as the Philippine Airlines Foundation (PALF) will sponsor his or his mother’s airplane ticket for their reunion.
Romulo Velasquez, social worker of the Parian Drop-in Center, said that after the incident, PALF coordinated with them to help the child meet his mother as an exercise of the company’s corporate social responsibility.
The boy has shaken the entire airport management after he slipped past the tight security last February 2.
With only a backpack with him, he was able to make it as far as boarding a plane by assisting an old woman who was mistaken as his companion.
He boarded Philippine Airline (PR) Flight 848 to Manila but airline personnel found out that he has no ticket after one passenger complained that the boy took his seat.
The boy still stays at the Parian Drop-in Center, where he stayed since August 2009 and escaped a day before the incident.
He was brought to the center with his older brother and a friend last year after stowing away from Dolores, Leyte where his family originally lives.
Velasquez said that the boy left the center on February 1 after he was told that his father would come to bring him back to Leyte.
It was already the second time that the boy tried to avoid his father prompting social workers to reinvestigate the boy’s family in Leyte through the local social welfare department there.
Velasquez said that the boy told them he and his mother were victims of physical abuse by his father.The report from the Department of Social Welfare and Development confirmed that the boy was a victim of physical abuse and the same prompted the separation of his parents.
Velasquez said that since 2008, the boy has not seen his mother who is believed to be in Manila working as a househelp.
The DSWD in Leyte was able to get a contact number of Jesusa Rivera, the mother of the child, but Velasquez is yet to follow up the progress of their communication.
“Ang giingon sa PAL Foundation is kung ma-trace na gyud ang mama, mohatag sila og pamilete. It’s either kami ang muhatod sa bata or ang mama ang muari,” he added.
Once they are able to locate the mother, he said they will still have to assess if she is capable of supporting her child before the custody will be given to her.
“Kung dili diay niya kaya suportahan ang bata, amo lang siyang ibutang sa laing center na duol sa ilaha, like maybe in Tagbilaran. Hopefully, adto na sya moeskwela,” Velasquez said. —Jessica Ann R. Pareja/WAB(FREEMAN NEWS)