BABY GIRL HANGS ON TO LIFE

Abandoned baby   stirs questions: Where’s  papa? Maid faces possible charge

She smiled when people visited her in the hospital yesterday.

Two days after she was tossed out of a house in Cebu city’s most exclusive subdivision and left to die until her cries alerted a passerby, the newborn girl is proving to be a survivor.

“The baby is okay.  No signs of any disease,” said Rey Cris Panugaling, director for administration of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

The infant is being fed breast milk with a liquid dropper.  Her tiny mouth is sucking the liquid, which doctors said was a good sign.

Her distraught mother, a maid in one of the houses in Maria Luisa Estate Subdivision, is recuperating in the obstetrics ward as social workers  wait for her to open up and talk.

The mother initially told police she didn’t want to keep the child because she had a husband and four children in Bohol province. The identity of the infant’s father remains unclear.

After a press conference where he was asked to comment on the case, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama went to the hospital accompanied by reporters to visit the baby, who still has no name.

Rama talked to the attending nurse, picked up the baby and kissed her. The infant  was seen smiling several times.

COUNSELING

Rama said it was “appalling behavior” for the mother to abandon her daughter but said the woman needs counseling.

He  asked the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) to arrange a psychological assessment.

“I hope there is nothing wrong with the mother. No mother in her right mind would do this after keeping a child (in her womb) for nine months,” he said.

“This baby should never be told when she grows up that she was just thrown away,” he stressed.

The mother’s emotional state was still unstable, said DSWS chief Dr. Ester Concha, who started talking to her yesterday afternoon.

Concha said they will try interview the mother tomorrow to assess what help she needs, especially since she’s a domestic helper.  Concha requested that the mother’s personal information remain confidential.

“Depending on our interview, we will decide what to do. If she changes her mind and wants to take back the baby, we will see. For now, we have to let her rest,” Concha said.

DISCOVERY

Police said the baby was discovered by a jogger and a security guard of Ma. Luisa subdivision past 4 a.m. of  May 6  after they were alerted by the baby’s cries.

The baby was found with her umbilical cord intact and was entangled in vines at  the back of the house where her mother was employed.  The site was near a 10-foot-deep ravine.

A police officer said the baby’s hand was holding on to the vines as if she were trying to save herself.

The police report did not identify the maid’s employer.

SPO1 Achilles Sanchez, investigator of the Mabolo police station, who responded to the dawn alarm, told CDN that when he arrived at the subdivision, the baby was already held in the arms of the jogger, Ariel Pipino, with the security guard standing beside him.

The baby was immediately brought to the hospital by paramedics of the Emergency and Rescue Unit Foundation.

Sanchez said that police returned to the area to locate the mother.

Another security guard, Ryan Villamor, who is assigned to the house where the mother worked, told police he saw bloodstains on the jogging pants of the housemaid.

The guard was sent into the house to verify the report  while police waited outside.

The guard returned and confirmed that he saw bloodstains in the comfort room on the second floor. The employer then appeared at the door to turn over the housemaid to the police.

This account was the basis of initial police reports that said the baby was tossed out the window from a second floor toilet.

CRIMINAL LIABILITY

PO1 Roche Pulgo of the Mabolo police said the mother could be held criminally liable for her action.

“If proven that there was really an intention to kill the child, a charge of frustrated infanticide can be filed against her.  But as of now, she is still in shock and may still be suffering from bleeding,” she said.

“She is not speaking to us.  We only learned her name from her employer.  We will just give her time.”

Pulgo said police learned that the mother has been working for over a year in the Maria Luisa residence.  Her sister also works there.

At the hospital, Mayor Rama was told by an attending nurse that the mother was still emotionally unstable.

At one point, nurses tried to ask her for breast milk but she refused to feed the baby.

She was later coaxed by a doctor to have some milked pumped from her breasts.   Nurses take turns feeding the baby through a liquid dropper.

Other than scratches in her small face, the baby is in good health.

The mayor confirmed that the child  was a case of an unwanted pregnancy as the mother has four children with her legal husband in Bohol.

“We have to attend to two now, the baby and the mother. The mother’s situation is really complicated. It can be an extended embarrassment for her. We don’t know how her other children will take it. But luoy kaayo ang bata. For now, counseling is needed. Let the mother stabilize and relax,” Rama said.

Asked by reporters if he was willing to take the child under his wing,  Rama said, “Why not?”.

The mayor, who has two adult children and an annulled marriage, said he was even willing to adopt the baby girl if not for the stringent requirements of adoption.

“Luoy man ang bata unya ganahan man ko’g bata (I feel bad for the baby and I like babies). The innocence of a child motivates you to work hard so their future is assured. They have to be loved,” Rama said.