MANILA, Philippines – Las Piñas police rescued Wednesday, January 3, Princess Louisana Bumatay, the 3-year-old girl abducted on December 30, 2017, and arrested two suspected kidnappers. 

According to a police report, the Las Piñas cops first arrested on Wednesday, Giselle Omaya.

Omaya confessed to the crime. The police launched a follow-up operation and arrested on the same day the second suspect, Cerio Tinolete, who was found with the child in Cavite.

If not for the timely rescue of the police, the suspects would have sold Bumatay for “P8,000 to P10,000,” said Metro Manila Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Superintendent Tomas Apolinario Jr.

Apolinario added, if the suspects failed to sell her, they would have forced the child to raise money by begging for alms in Cavite.

“Either ipapatubos or ibebenta sana ‘yung bata. Pero nung hindi nag-prosper, plano nila ay gagawin na lang daw sana nila pagpapalimos sa kalye,” Apolinario told reporters in a text message.

(They either would have sold or had ransomed the child. But it did not work, so they planned to have her walk as beggar in the streets.)

He added that Bumatay’s parents were in contact with the suspects even before they asked for cops’ help. The suspects told the parents to pay P3,000 to P5,000. But the parents did not have the means to pay, Apolinario said.

The general added that they have launched an investigation whether the “partners in crime” were part of a bigger kidnap-for-ransom or child trafficking syndicate making money out of helpless parents. – Rappler.com