Nine-year-old girl rescued from kidnappers

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampnga — Agents of the 3rd Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (RCIDU) rescued a nine-year old girl and arrested the lady kidnapper who forcibly took her to a remote area in Nueva Ecija.

The suspect’s safehouse in Barangay Villa Viniegas, Llanera, Nueva Ecija, was raided over the weekend.

The suspect, identified as Zenaida Fabro, alias Zenaida Villegas or Zenaida Manalastas, resisted arrest by drinking facial cosmetics, which prompted the RCIDU operatives to rush her to the nearest hospital, said Superintendent Salvador Manga, 3rdRCIDU chief.

Manga said the victim, Quennie Dane Borja Manalastas, a grade three pupil at the San Juan Elementary School in Barangay San Juan, San Luis, Pampanga, was reunited with his parents after almost four days in captivity.

He said the victim was on her way to school on March 2 when the suspect forcibly dragged her to a vehicle parked nearby and fled to unknown direction.

The abduction was witnessed by people near the school compound who reported it to the police and positively identified the suspect.

Manga said follow-up operations in Nueva Ecija led to the arrest of the suspect, who is also facing a strings of cases in Metro Manila and other courts in Central Luzon, including large-scale illegal recruitment, swindling and estafa.

Fabro is presently detained at the provincial jail pending trial of the case.