BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A 2-month-old baby was reportedly abandoned by her mother, who fled with a group of suspected New People’s Army rebels yesterday, in a shanty in Hacienda Ambulong, Brgy. San Fernando, Talisay City, Negros Occidental, and she has been turned over to the City Social Welfare and Development Office, city police chief, Maj. Jigger Gimeno, said.
The baby girl left in the house of a certain Marilyn Dianton in the hacienda, after her mother, identified only as “Moneth”, alias Jandy, fled with a group of NPA rebels, after they noticed soldiers from the 79th Infantry Battalion approaching the area, Maj. Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said yesterday.
Pancito added that the rebels also left behind assorted baby care products, subversive documents with high intelligence value, personal belongings, and oral contraceptives.
He added that the occupants of the house where the infant was left were also invited for questioning by the Talisay City police.
“The incident is a sad reality of how evil these communists are even to their own child,” Pancito said, noting also that they can sacrifice their own blood for a worthless cause.
“As a mother, she could have sacrificed some more for her baby, rather than abandon the child,” he added.
If she had just surrendered, the government would help her and her child, Pancito also said. Human rights group Karapatan Negros Island claimed that military men barged into the house of Marlin Dianton and Edwin Madin while they were asleep, and were subsequently detained.*
