Mary Jane Carizon pleads for forgiveness from the baby’s mother Maricel Enriquez (back to camera) after her arrest by the CIDG for kidnapping the infant. She misled the family and police by saying her own newborn was “sick” and that she needed money for medication. (PHOTO BY NIKKO SERENO OF GMA-CEBU)
Losing her baby may have led Mary Jane Carizon to steal the 3-month-old daughter of a cigarette vendor at the Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) last Nov. 2.
The 24-year-old Carizon, who is still in police custody, told Cebu Daily News she had a miscarriage while fetching water last month in Samboan town, south Cebu. She said she never told anyone about it.
Carizon wasn’t telling the truth after all when she was arrested last week in Liloan town and said she took the baby girl at the terminal with plans to put her up for adoption and earn money for the medication of her own sick newborn baby left under the care of her parents.
Even her parents didn’t know she had lost the baby.
Gusto naman gud sila nga makakita sa ilang apo mao nga pagkamatay sa bata wa ko nitug-an sa ilaha nga namatay ang bata. Pero di jud nako intention nga kwaon to siya (Lady Love) kay naa man jud koy ibalik man jud unta ko ato (They were excited to have a grandchild so when I suffered a miscarriage I didn’t tell them. But it was not my intention to steal the other baby. I planned to return her),” said Carizon.
Carizon said she was seven months pregnant when she felt sharp abdominal pains and was bleeding when she fetched water in Samboan town.
She said a couple helped her recuperate. and that she placed the baby’s corpse in a sack.
How much of her account can be verified depends on the police, and social workers if they take an interest in the bizarre case.
Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba, CIDG-7 chief, said it’s possible she was suffering postpartum depression, which is common among mothers who have just given birth, and was not emotionally stable.
A kidnapping case will be filed against Carizon by the baby’s mother.
“We are also considering to file charges against Carizon’s live-in partner Michael Pitaluna because he failed to report the child in their custody,” Tayaba said.
Last Nov. 2, Carizon befriended the mother, vendor Maricel Enriquez, when she saw the baby crying at the vendor’s cigaret stall. She told Enriquez she was waiting for her husband to come to the Cebu South Bus Terminal.
Carizon said she volunteered to watch over the baby named Lady Love while Enriquez attended to her customers. CCTV footage in the terminal showed her playing with the baby and carrying the swaddled infant.
By late afternoon, she had disappeared. She said she went to Dalaguete where relatives, including her mother, believed the baby was hers.
The mother was persistent in bringing her complaint to several police offices and looking for her youngest child. The CIDG traced her and the baby to a rented room in Liloan, and arrested her.