Teen nabbed for toddler's kidnap in Caloocan mall

MANILA, Philippines - An 18-year-old girl was arrested Thursday when she returned to a Caloocan City mall after she was caught by the mall’s surveillance camera reportedly kidnapping a one-year-old girl a week ago.

Monica Briones, a resident of Barangay 168 in Baesa, Caloocan City, was charged with kidnapping Friday afternoon at the office of assistant city prosecutor Darwin Cañete with no bail recommended.

Briones allegedly snatched Sharika Abdulbaki at the mall’s play center at around noon on Sept. 15. Sharika remains missing.

Senior Superintendent Jude Santos, Caloocan City police chief, directed his men yesterday to verify reports that Briones was also involved in another abduction case of a five-year-old child recently, but the victim was recovered.

Santos said he wants Briones’ accomplices identified because she could not have acted alone.

Chief Inspector Rodrigo Soriano, Caloocan City police investigation chief, said Sharika was at the third floor of the mall playing with her father, Abdulbaki Saraji, 30, when she went missing.

Abdulbaki looked for his daughter for several hours in the mall but failed to find her. Rodolfo Tinio, 48, a shopper, told Abdulbaki he saw a woman carrying a girl fitting Sharika’s description down an escalator.

Abdulbaki sought the assistance of the shopping center’s security office. Footage taken by the mall’s surveillance camera showed Briones fleeing with his daughter.

Mall security personnel searched the whole building, but Sharika and Briones were nowhere to be found. Guards were provided with the picture of the suspect.

At around 5 p.m. on Sept. 22, guard Rosendo Gagelonia saw Briones in the shopping center and alerted his colleagues. They put her under arrest.

Police Officer 3 Marcelino Amin said Briones told them she brought the girl to a certain Maymay in Quiapo, but when she returned the following day the girl was gone.

“The suspect told investigators that she picked up the girl, for she was roaming aimlessly inside the mall, and brought her to her friends’ care in Quiapo, but a check in the area was futile, there was no Maymay there,” Amin told The STAR.

Interviewed in her cell, Briones said she has nothing to do with the girl’s disappearance.

“I don’t have anything to do with the girl’s disappearance. My only contact with her was when I gave her a token for her to use in the children’s playing center,” she said crying.

Cañete, however, said that during the inquest, Briones admitted to abducting the girl and bringing her to a friend in Manila.