'Poison Ivy' recaptured in Zambo

MANILA, Philippines - A housemaid convicted of poisoning and robbing her employers in Manila and Quezon City was arrested at a bus terminal in Zamboanga City yesterday, two months after she escaped from the Women’s Correctional facility in Mandaluyong City.

Zamboanga City police chief Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo said Anamae Livrando, 31, was “on her way to Cagayan de Oro or Butuan City to get a passport because the (Department of Foreign Affairs office) in this city is strict about issuing passports.”

He said Livrando – dubbed “Poison Ivy” by police investigators in Manila – was planning to leave the country for Malaysia to avoid jail.

De Ocampo said it was Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat who received information about Livrando’s presence in the city and alerted the police. He added that they coordinated with Senior Superintendent Nelson Yabut, who arrested Livrando in 2008 after eight Filipino-Chinese families in Binondo, Manila filed complaints against her.

Unmasked

De Ocampo said Livrando, using the alias Kevin Kylie Deniega Cañabano, was seen at around 10 a.m. yesterday at a terminal in Barangay Guiwan, waiting for a bus bound for Cagayan de Oro City.

“She was wearing a surgical mask to conceal her identity. However, when one of our operatives called her name, she reacted, which led to her detection,” De Ocampo said.

He said Livrando reportedly tried to bribe the lawmen who arrested her.

According to Yabut, Livrando said she paid a jail guard named Gonzales P80,000 to escort her through a secret passage out of the Women’s Correctional compound on Nov. 19, 2011. She then went to a friend’s house in Batangas, then spent some time in Dumaguete City. She arrived in Zamboanga City on Jan. 5, where she was able to contact her foreigner boyfriend through a cell phone. Her boyfriend was supposed to fetch her once she arrives in Malaysia.

Livrando, however, refused to put her answers during the interrogation in writing, according to De Ocampo.

Yabut said jail officials denied having a jail guard named “Gonzales” on their roster. They said Livrando escaped by scaling a wall in the Women’s Correctional compound and some of her clothes were recovered near the wall.

Women’s Correctional director Superintendent Rachel Ruelo is reportedly scheduled to fetch Livrando from the Zamboanga City police office.

Livrando escaped from the Manila City Jail in 2008 while she was on trial for frustrated homicide and robbery but was recaptured in August 2011 after victimizing two more families. She was serving her sentence for multiple serious physical injuries and robbery when she made her latest escape.

Her modus operandi is to befriend security guards of high-end condominiums and later ask them to vouch for her when she applies of a job as a housemaid. Once employed, she would poison her employer’s family then steal their possessions while they are in the hospital.

Meanwhile, Teresita Ang-See, founding chair of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, said Livrando’s arrest was “a piece of good news to usher in the Year of the Dragon.”

She called on police to ensure she does not escape again. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe