Two 'missing' minors rescued in Samboan

CEBU, Philippines —  The two minors who were reported missing since Monday were rescued by the Talisay City police in a lodging house in Bato, San Sebastian, Samboan in southern Cebu early dawn Friday.

Talisay City Police Station chief, Police Lt. Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, said they traced the location of Mikaela Ayesha Alam-Alam, 12, and Jea Mae Abellana, 13, after checking out their friends on Facebook and communicated with them.

Talisay cops have first found out that the two minors were still in Cebu City but to no avail when they weren’t able to catch them in the said area.

“Pero sa nagpadayong nga communication atong nahibaw-an nga naa sila sa Samboan so didto sila atong naabtan, na-reacue,” said Pelare.

On the report that these minors were possibly abducted by alleged illegal recruiters, Pelare said this was initially established after finding out that a certain “Scarlett,” who belonged to the same group chat where Alam-Alam and Abellana were included, could have convinced both victims to flee from their homes.

“Usa na sa pinaka posibilidad nga nilayas sila,” said Pelare.

However, during the interview of the cops to the children, they claimed that it was their own decision to flee from their houses.

Pelare further said that they had a witness who also belonged in the same group chat that this certain Scarlett enticed them to flee and where the illegal recruitment was established from.

Further investigation revealed that initially, there were originally four of them who were enticed to travel. One of them is from United Arab Emirates.

“She was trying to entice the three na molayas, nya ang usa nibalibad, kini rang duha maoy nidayon, so duha ra gyuy missing,” said Pelare.

During the rescue operation, Alam-alam and Abellana were found to have set to travel to Negros Oriental. Pelare said they are still in the process of determining their reason to go Negros.

On Thursday, it was reported that the parents of Alam-Alam went to the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) to ask for an assistance to locate their child.

Paulo Alam-Alam told the media that his eldest daughter, Mikaela, went missing after her classmate, Jea of Pasil, Cebu City, picked her up from their residence in Talisay City. — GMR (FREEMAN)