MANILA, Philippines - Police officers rescued a three-week-old infant from a woman who took her while her mother was sleeping at Baywalk along Roxas Boulevard in Manila yesterday morning.
Melanie Inocencio, 22, was arrested as she was walking in Lawton carrying the baby at around 6 a.m. by policemen from the Manila Police District (MPD) Lawton precinct. She will be charged with kidnapping, investigators said.
The baby’s mother, Diana Lyn Santiago, told police she was sleeping with her baby on the sidewalk when Inocencio picked up her daughter. She said she noticed the woman, but thought she was one of her fellow cigarette vendors.
When she woke up, she asked her friends about her baby, but no one could tell where she was. She went to the MPD Station 5, which alerted all the police stations.
Investigators said they are trying to determine if Inocencio is part of a group whose members kidnap children and use them to beg on the streets. The suspect reportedly said she took Santiago’s baby because she misses her own infant, taken from her by her mother.