IN PHOTOS: Stray dog leads man to save abandoned baby in Sibonga

A stray dog led a Sibonga town resident to the location of the newborn baby boy who was abandoned in a grassy vacant lot in Barangay Magcagong on Christmas Eve. The Women and Children’s Protection Desk (WCPD) of the Sibonga Police Station said that the dog kept on barking at a passing motorcycle driver, who later on told authorities about the baby. Social workers have taken custody of the baby while the police continue to look for his mother. | Photos from Sibonga WCPD

CEBU CITY, Philippines — An abandoned newborn was saved by locals in Sibonga town last Christmas Eve, December 24, thanks to the help of a motorcycle driver who heeded to the barks of a stray dog.

A newborn baby boy, whose umbilical cord and placenta still attached, was found wrapped in a towel on a grassy vacant lot near the town’s dumpsite in Barangay Magcagong.

Authorities from the Sibonga Police Station reported that it was a certain  Junrell Fuentes Revilla who made the discovery and brought the infant to the nearest hospital for treatment.

As of December 27, investigators said they were still trying to determine the identity of the baby’s mother and other individuals who possibly left him there.

The infant is now under the custody of Sibonga’s social workers.

Revilla, 36, who also reported the incident to the police, told investigators that he was driving his motorcycle along the area on the morning of Christmas Eve when a black dog kept barking at him.

He added that he stopped when the dog did not stop pestering him, and he decided to follow the canine to the spot where he found the infant crying.

Police have asked residents in Sibonga, a third-class municipality located 50 kilometers southeast of Cebu City, to help them identify the mother of the abandoned baby. /dbs

Photos courtesy of Sibonga Police Station – Women and Children’s Protection Desk