De la Paz: ‘Kidnapping of baby was premeditated’

“IT’s premeditated and I believe that she knew the consequences of her action,” Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) director Ricardo De la Paz said in a statement on Tuesday.

Based on the initial investigation by Women and Children Complaints Desk (WCCD) led by Police Inspector Jovy Cabcaban, De la Paz said that the suspect, Lilet Lentija, 22, of Purok Riverbank, Barangay Villamonte in Bacolod City, was in stable mental condition when she kidnapped the four days old baby last Friday inside the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH).

De la Paz said the suspect has an intention and motive to kidnap the baby, noting that before she kidnapped the baby, she has already prepared for the needs of the baby.

Cabcaban said charges for kidnapping were already filed Tuesday before the City Prosecutor’s Office against the suspect and no bail was recommended.

Lentija was arrested in hot pursuit operation by operatives of WCCD at her residence last Saturday.

“The suspect pretended that she was pregnant and her live-in partner and their relatives also believed that she was really pregnant. She was forced to take the baby to make her story real,” De la Paz explained.

De la Paz said last September 21, the suspect told her neighbors and the relatives of her live-in partner that she will go to the hospital to deliver her baby. And on the next day, when she went home she has already the baby which she took from the CLMMRH. (Merlinda A. Pedrosa)