Missing boy reunited with parents

MANILA, Philippines - A boy who disappeared from his home in Quezon City Monday was reunited with his parents yesterday after a couple who took custody of him returned the child.

John Gabriel Calimag’s mother, Grace, said she was thankful to the “good people” who sheltered and returned her child and that she learned a lesson to be stricter in looking after their son.

“It was a good thing good people were the ones who found him. We realized we have to be really watchful of our child,” she said in Filipino.

Quezon City Police District director Senior Superintendent Richard Albano said the boy was returned to his parents at past 2 p.m. yesterday. Earlier in the morning, Alexander Cruz and his wife brought the child to the Pasay City police.

 â€œThey took care of him, fed him and even gave the child change of clothes after they took him into custody on Monday afternoon,” Albano said in an interview.

According to Albano, the American man earlier reported to have taken the boy turned out to be Cruz.

“He’s Filipino. He just looks Caucasian,” Albano said, noting that the man had no intention of abducting the child.

 â€œHe (Cruz) took the child because he was afraid of the reported cases of abduction of children,” the police official said.

Lecture

After the reunion, Albano took the opportunity to lecture the boy’s parents to be more watchful of their son.

Before the three-year-old boy went missing, he was left with his sleeping mother as his father Joel left the house to buy something at a nearby market at around 5 p.m.

 â€œI was asleep and did not realize he had gone out,” Grace said.

According to Albano, the couple initially did not bother to look for the child as he usually went back whenever he went out. When the couple was already having dinner and finally bothered to look for the child, the boy could no longer be found.

The boy had apparently walked all the way to the MRT Kamuning station from their house on NIA Road in Barangay Pinyahan. It was at the MRT station that Cruz saw the child.

Grace said her son was playing near their house when another child brought him to the MRT station and left him there.

Cruz said the boy was turned over to him by another child who was usually seen in the area. “I just took the boy because he was already crying,” he said.

Cruz and his wife went to the police on Wednesday to report the boy he had taken in their custody.

Albano said they will not press charges against Cruz because he took Calimag in good faith.

Investigators said they will check surveillance footage at the MRT station to see if the incident was caught on video. Albano said Cruz, a resident of Pasay, regularly visits Quezon City because of his businesses.

2 more children recovered

Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director, also announced the recovery of two more boys.

Espina said traffic enforcers found a nine-year-old boy – who identified himself as Pinoy, but did not know his family name – after a man told them the boy was roaming along Gil Puyat Avenue alone.

Pinoy said he road a jeepney from his home in Naic, Cavite. He said his parents’ names are Erwin and Wite.

Another nine-year-old boy, McKevin Rodrigo, was found under a bridge along Osmeña Highway in Manila Wednesday night. He said he ran away from his home in Sta. Ana because his mother maltreated him.

Police said Rodrigo was turned over to the Manila social welfare office.

Espina told reporters that the NCRPO will coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to round up the street children in Metro Manila to determine if they are among the children reported missing in the metropolis and other areas.