HEAVY rain jolted Mellow (real name withheld) from her sleep last Saturday at past 11 p.m.
The worrying fell heavy as well for the 23-year-old nurse, although it wasn’t so much about any leaking roof at all.
She was thinking of her three-year-old half-brother Beck (not his real name), who was kidnapped by three persons last Thursday dawn.
“Naghunahuna ko asa siya tulog. Tugnaw man gani bisag naa koy habol (I was thinking where he was sleeping. I felt the cold even if I wrapped myself in blanket),” said Mellow.
At 3:45 p.m. yesterday, Mellow found Beck playing with other children in a vacant space in Barangay Kamagayan, Cebu City.
The boy’s pictures were circulated in social networking sites.
Beck was wearing a sleeveless shirt but had no pants.
Mellow did not approach Beck right away.
“Ako unang gisiguro siya ba gyud. Ako unang gitan-aw naa bay tungoy-tungoy ang luyo sa iyang ulo (I made sure it was him),” she said.
After she confirmed it was her missing sibling, Mellow approached the boy, who also noticed her.
“Ate!” shouted Beck, who hugged his sister, who was still in her uniform.
Mellow cried, but Beck was all smiles.
The boy’s relatives and his father, a police officer assigned in Cebu City Police Office, arrived later.
They hugged and kissed the boy.
“Nidaot na man ka, uy (You are already thin)!” said one of the boy’s uncles.
Arrested
Beck’s father Travis, a police officer, said suspects Jairus Dabon and Nelson Dayday were arrested by the personnel of Mandaue City Police Station 4.
A witness, who was jogging last Thursday morning, saw the suspects in the company of Beck.
The father said the suspects told him they gave the boy to a certain Jessa, who is reportedly a junkie and frequents Kamagayan.
Before the boy disappeared last Thursday at past 3 a.m., he was sleeping with his mother in their house in Barangay Maguikay, Mandaue City.
Travis was on duty at that time in a Cebu City police station.
Beck possibly got out of the house because the door was not locked.
“Manubag gyud ang mga suspek ani (The suspects should be held liable),” said Travis, who went to Barangay Labangon the other night after receiving an information that Jessa lives there.
Search
Mellow had asked her superior to allow her not to work this week because she will help her family in looking for Beck.
After her duty at 3 p.m. yesterday, she started her search outside a mall on Leon Kilat St.
She surveyed a portion of Sanciangko St. and went straight to Kamagayan, acting on the information that Jessa is a drug addict.
She later saw Beck in a vacant space where the CitiCenter Complex used to stand.
The boy even called Jessa, “Mama (Mother),” said Mellow.
Beck, who cannot speak well, had mosquito bites on his body. It was unclear when the boy and Jessa arrived in Kamagayan.
Mellow said Jessa should face trial in court.
“Mo-surender na lang gyud siya. Wa siya maluoy sa bata (She should surrender. She did not pity the child),” she said.
When she asked Beck where he slept for the past three nights, the boy answered: “Side...side,” possibly referring to a pedestrian walkway.