Manhunt for 'Poison Ivy' launched

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Police District acting director Senior Superintendent Alex Gutierrez yesterday ordered his intelligence men to tap their sources who could provide information to recapture a housemaid who escaped from the Women’s Correctional facility last Saturday.

Anamae Livrando, dubbed by the police as “Poison Ivy,” was convicted of poisoning and robbing at least 10 families in Manila and Quezon City she worked for as a maid.

“She is a peril to the security of the public now that she is once again in the loose. She must be recaptured at all costs,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said the escaped convict might resurface in Manila, as she had vowed to continue her criminal activities once she regains freedom.  

Senior Superintendent Nelson Yabut, who arrested Livrando in 2008, said he is doing a background check of her identified friends.

Yabut said he is also doing follow-ups on the activities of Livrando’s alleged former lesbian lover, whom he refused to identify.

He said Livrando also has a foreigner lover abroad who regularly sends her money.

Livrando also escaped from the Manila City Jail where she was detained while her cases of frustrated homicide and robbery were being tried following her arrest.

Quezon City policemen rearrested her in August 2011 after victimizing two more families.

During her first arrest in Binondo, she refused to reveal what type of poison she mixed on her victims’ food. One of her victims, a child of a Filipino-Chinese couple, almost died.

Police released the mugshot of Livrando to warn the public.