3-yr-old victim wants severed arm put back

CEBU, Philippines - The three-year-old child who lost his right arm after being held hostage by his uncle in Toledo City is adjusting slowly to his new situation.

His mother, Araceli Plando, said her son was reportedly looking for his arm and insisted that it be reconnected. The boy remained uneasy for three days since he got amputated two days before Christmas.

“Sige siya ug pangita hain iyang bukton. Akong giingnan nga gilubong na nangutana siya ngano unya ipabalik kuno niya,” the mother said.

The child used to be right-handed.

“Wa siya’y tingog-tingog human sa operasyon. Didto na siya nitingog pag-ingon sa doctor nga pwede na siya pakan-on,” Plando said in a phone interview.

Doctors at the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center decided to amputate the child after they found out that three major veins on his armpit were cut off. The child’s uncle, Allan Bolo, had hurt the boy with the bolo he was holding when holding the child hostage last Thursday.

Doctors said that even if they would try to reconnect the veins, the same would not assure that the child could use his right arm again. It took two hours for the doctors to cut the arm off.

Plando also said earlier that aside from the slash on her son’s right arm, she also found another cut near his pulse and two scrapes on his legs.

“Karon medyo okay na iyang mga samad sa batiis,” Plando said.

Yesterday afternoon, shortly after he was released from the hospital, the child was brought to the Capitol to meet with Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. The governor greeted him with a kiss and an embrace and offered him chocolates.

Garcia instructed Provincial Health Officer Dr. Cristina Giango to provide the boy vitamins and medicines for his medication. The provincial government shouldered all the expenses at VSMMC.

Later, the child, his mother and grandfather returned home with some goodies, canned goods, rice and an undisclosed amount of cash given by Garcia.

The boy’s fate made a sudden turn last Thursday morning when Bolo held him and his two other cousins hostage for six hours in Sitio Danawan, Barangay Biga, Toledo City.

Police were left without any other option but to shoot the suspect when he hit the child with the bolo.

Bolo reportedly got angry when his common-law wife left him last Tuesday. He had suspected her to be having an affair with another man. He reportedly had been talking to himself on Wednesday evening while honing his scythe and bolo.

It was at around 6:30 a.m. when he lured his three nephews - two aged three and one five years old - to his house by offering them boiled cassava before he held them hostage.

Barangay Captain Marcelina Bolo, a relative of Allan, was summoned to the house to negotiate for the release of the children but failed to do so after two hours.

Bolo had demanded primarily to see his common law wife, Arlene Omintado. The police sent someone to find Omintado but failed to do so. Reports had it that she had gone to Cebu City with their three-year-old daughter.

Bolo later demanded for a M-16 Armalite rifle, a caliber .45 pistol, and a hand grenade. Police offered a M-16 rifle minus a firing pin to lure Bolo to open the window and just as the suspect did so, police shot him on the left side of the head.

Still, before this happened, Bolo had already hurt the three-year-old child. The two other children are safe.  (FREEMAN)