DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A still unverified overseas Filipino worker from Compostela Valley province could be facing criminal charges for abandoning her 3-month old son at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Friday, Nov. 25.
But Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Regional Director Eduardo Bellido said they are still verifying if Vilma Lastima is really from Maco, Compostela Valley or whether the passport which she left her son with to a stranger is real.
On Friday morning, Lastima who identified herself as an OFW from Jordan, allegedly left her 3-month old child to Myrna Bonaobra, also a passenger at the NAIA.
But Bellido said Bonaobra waited until 11 p.m. and realized that Lastima is not coming back. The passenger reported the incident to the airport authorities.
“Actually, we cannot trace her yet. We already asked the family welfare officer to check her records because her passport indicates that she is from Maco, but when we coordinated with the (Public Employment Service Office) and the Municipal Social Office, we found no record about her,” Bellido said.
Bellido added that according to the welfare office from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Jordan, there is no Vilma Lastima registered in the hospitals’ ward record.
He said there is a possibility that the person in the passport is not really the mother of the child.
Bellido also assumed the mother could also be using tourist visa because she is not in the OWWA’s list.
He said if proven that the mother abandoned the child, she could be penalized under Presidential Decree No. 603. (With reports from Maricar Emata, Intern/davaotoday.com)
