Missing woman turns up safe

CEBU, Philippines - A woman who was reported to have been picked up by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 last Wednesday showed up yesterday morning at the office of Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong.

Looking like she had not slept for days, Felissa Sasan, 26, was accompanied by the city police to Chiong’s office just about an hour after her parents left.

“Nikuyog ra diay kuno sa iyang uyab maong nawa,” said Chiong in an interview.

Felissa’s parents, Nerissa and Feliciano, came to Chiong to ask for assistance in locating their missing daughter who they believed was picked up by CIDG personnel last Wednesday in Balili Beach, Barangay Tinaan, Naga City.

The CIDG, however, denied they had Felissa under custody.

According to Felissa, she was in barangay Mainit gathering coconuts the entire time her parents were looking for her.

“Namutong ra ko didto kuyog akong barkada. Ganahan na ta ko mouli pero gilaayan man ko,” she said.

She said it was a Naga City policeman who told her that her parents were already looking for her. After their visit to the CIDG and the National Bureau of Investigation the other day, Felissa’s parents had the incident blottered at the Naga City Police Station.

Felissa also belied rumors that she had a hand in the killing of six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique in barangay Calajoan, Minglanilla town last February 8, the reason why the authorities were reportedly after her.

She also denied having a foreigner employee, believed to be the mastermind of the child’s abduction and murder. The Sasans live in a house in Sitio Seaside, Barangay North Poblacion, Naga City, and subsist on Feliciano’s income from his daily fishing. Due to poverty, Felissa had to send her two children, aged two and three, to the house of her live-in partner’s sister. 

Her live-in partner, Clifford Navales, has been in jail for three years now for a case of robbery with homicide.

Nerrisa said they were set to get her daughter a lawyer to help her face all the allegations against her.

Meanwhile, Norwegian Sven Erik Berger was accompanied by his lawyer Salvador Solima to the Bureau of Immigration yesterday to ask for an extension of his stay since his passport will expire on February 28.

But the BOI said they will grant an extension of seven to 15 days only after Berger will receive his resolution from the fiscal’s office.

“Ingon ang BOI at least nakahibawo na sila regarding sa expiration sa iyang passport,” Solima said. 

Berger and his Filipina fiancée Karen Esdrelon were earlier accused of abducting and killing Ellah Joy.

Esdrelon and Berger were held by the authorities in the Mactan Cebu International Airport after their passports matched the cartographic sketches of the suspects.

Complex crime of kidnapping with homicide was filed against the couple but the National Bureau of Investigation said they were in Cebu City at the time Ellah Joy was abducted in Minglanilla town.

The slow action of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in giving resolution to the case against them has frustrated the couple since last Monday.

“Concern lang gyud unta ba sa tawhanong katungod, salawayon ang ilang gibuhat sa akong mga kliyente,” Solima said. — /BRP (FREEMAN)