Beggar's baby dies in possible hit-and-run case

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – An 11-month-old girl, whose family sleeps in the sidewalk at night, was found with injuries at a vacant lot near a university in this city and died hours later in a hospital Monday, police said.

Inspector Jovy Cabcaban, chief of the Bacolod City Police Women’s and Children’s Complaints Desk (WCCD), said they are still establishing the facts of the case.

Cabcaban theorized that while the mother was sleeping, the child might have crawled towards the street and may have been hit by a passing vehicle. Due to fear, the driver could have abandoned the injured baby in the vacant lot.

Initial investigations showed that the child sustained injuries in her forehead, chest and ears.

Cabcaban said the girl’s mother, whose name she withheld, who hails from Brgy. Kaduha-an in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental has been a beggar at the sidewalks of Bacolod. Along with her husband and their two children, they slept at Lizares Street in front of a dormitory Sunday night.

The mother told Cabcaban that she saw her baby sleeping by her side when she woke up at about 1 a.m. to answer the call of nature, but when she woke up again at about 6 a.m., the child was missing already.

The mother said she looked for her daughter but failed to find her and immediately sought the help of the WCCD. While she was at the police, a concerned citizen called up the WCCD personnel to inform them that two trisikad drivers found at a vacant lot a baby girl with injuries.

Cabcaban said an autopsy is being readied to ascertain the cause of the baby’s death. –THE FREEMAN