ILOILO CITY ,Philippines — The City Police office has dispelled fears about reports of abduction among school children in the city for smuggling of human organs.
Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio, city police director, said that officially, there was no one who was reportedly abducted in the city and the parents have nothing to worry ... so far.
Based on the monitoring and validation conducted by police intelligence units, there has been no verified reports of the existence of any group involved in the abduction of children, said Valerio, adding that the police have coordinated with the barangay intelligence networks (BINs) and same results were yielded.
The abduction scare started when three pupils of Baluarte Elementary School in Molo district claimed that a group of four persons tried to kidnap them Wednesday.
According to the reports, the boys came from school and were on their way home when four men, wearing bonnets and riding a white van, accosted them.
One of the men then told one of the boys to board the vehicle because his mother was inside. But instead of heeding to the order of the unidentified men, the children scampered away and later told their parents about the incident.
Two days later, a school girl in Mabini St., La Paz district claimed that she was sitting outside her boarding house when an Isuzu Crosswind stopped near her. The man, long haired and middle aged, waved at her and motioned to come near him. Because of the report of children being kidnapped for their organs, the girl ran off.
"When we investigated, there was no abduction. Kinawayan lang sila and, after that, the man went off," Valerio said.
Despite this downplay of reports, several students and parents are still engulfed with fear, prompting Valerio to direct all chiefs of city stations to beef up their policemen in conducting visibility patrols in public elementary and high schools.
In can be noted that the National Bureau of Investigation alerted the public over a few years back the rampant smuggling of human organs in the Philippines.
It was said that the smugglers have been targeting children who they kidnapped and taken abroad where their organs are sold to foreign nationals.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified the Philippines as one of the five organ trafficking hotpots.