A two-year-old child was brutalized apparently by members of her own family.
The child was rescued and taken from her home in Barangay Sangi, Toledo City, on Friday evening by the Department of Social Services.
She bore burn wounds on her thighs, her ears were bloodied and her vagina swollen.
The child was brought to the Pink Room of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) by a social worker and the child’s mother for treatment.
Her pictures were posted by neighbors on the Facebook group account “Toledo Political Forum,” an FB group where Toledo City residents can express their opinions and complaints concerning the Toledo City government.
“The photo was posted by the victim’s neighbor. When we learned about the incident, we immediately rescued the child with the help of the Toledo City Police,” said Mae Tacandong, head of Toledo City’s Social Welfare and Development Office.
FB post
A neighbor had been noticing the child’s condition for about a week already, prompting him to post pictures on his FB account.
Rejay Esquila’s post was shared on the “Toledo Political Forum” FB page.
He posted, “Naa koy i-share ninyo. Hope tabangan ko ninyo ani. Naa koy silingan diri sambag sangi nga grabi makadapat sa iyang anak pirmi jud kulatahon bataa karon nakasaka mi ilang abangan pirting hubaga sa dunggan unya naay paso ang paa gahubag pajud ang buto sa bata. Ang inahan ana laki si Carlo. Kani daw si Carlo perti makadapat sa bata. Tabangi tawon me nga makuha.”
(I have something to share. I hope you could help. We have neighbor here who always hurts the child. We were able to enter their rented place and saw how swollen the child’s ears were. Her thighs have burns while her vagina is also swollen. Help us to rescue this child.)
Last night, the child’s wounds on her ears were cleaned and had started to heal. Tacandong said the child will need to stay at the Pink Room for a
thorough assessment to be conducted by Dr. Marian Naomi Poca.
“The results of the medical checkup will be our basis if we would file a case against the parents or not,” Tacandong said.
No idea
The child’s parents are mango vendors in Toledo City. When they were summoned by Tacandong to her office, the mother claimed she had just learned about what happened to her daughter. The parents also denied hurting their child.
The two-year-old girl is the fourth of five children. The two oldest, a 10-year-old boy and a nine-year-old girl, are her half siblings, the children of her mother from a past relationship.
Her two other siblings are aged three and a nine-month-old baby. The mother is pregnant with her sixth child.
The child’s half siblings do not go to school and were tasked by the parents to take care of the younger siblings.
They live in a rented room of a two-story house in Barangay Sangi, paying P700 per month.
Tacandong said that their initial investigation showed that the 10-year-old brother would pinch the vagina of the child every time she would urinate or defecate. She said she learned this from the nine-year-old sibling.
“Kusion siya kay nagkatag man iyang hugaw (He would pinch her because her excrement was all over the place),” Tacandong told Cebu Daily News.
She said they cannot yet verify whether the parents also hurt the child, although they are still under investigation.
Not interactive
Tacandong said the two-year-old girl should have been interactive and responsive to people. She is also malnourished.
“But everytime we call her, she would just stare or smile,” she told CDN.
The local social welfare and development of Toledo City plans to place the child under their custody or send her to the Missionaries of Charity in Cebu City for six months.
Their office is also doing an assessment on her siblings to determine whether they should also be taken under the custody of the local social welfare and development office of Toledo City especially the 10-year-old half brother who allegedly pinched the child.
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