Girl chained to bedpost rescued

MANILA, Philippines - After six months of reportedly being chained to a bedpost each time her father left their house in Tondo, a six-year-old girl was rescued by Manila police officers yesterday, along with her eight-month-old sister.

City social welfare chief Jay de la Fuente said prior to the rescue, District 1 head Lala Clemente reported a case of child abuse in Barangay 58. Upon verifying the report, he coordinated with Manila Police District Station 7 commander Senior Superintendent Ernesto Barlam, who dispatched a team to accompany social workers to rescue the siblings.

Upon entering the house on Fajardo street, the police officers and social workers found the girl chained to the bedpost and her baby sister on the bed, unattended for several hours.

De la Fuente said they took the children under protective custody, had them undergo a medical examination and presented them to Mayor Alfredo Lim, who told him to make the children’s parents answerable.

At the city hall, the girls’ father arrived and said he left the children in the care of his 14-year-old son. He said he did not know that his son abandoned them and chained the girl to the bedpost.

Barangay officials, however, told De la Fuente that the girl was chained up each time the father left the house. The father was arrested and brought to Barlam’s office for investigation.

Police are searching for the girls’ mother and the 14-year-old boy.

Barangay councilmen Rollie Malato and Ernesto de Guzman told Lim that based on the information they gathered, the girl and her sister have been left alone in the house that way since May, or for the past six months.

Lim directed De la Fuente to file appropriate charges against the girls’ father, particularly for violating Ordinance 8243, which penalizes any person who abandons a minor.