POLICE arrested a 25-year-old woman for the alleged kidnapping of a three-year-old boy from Barangay Maguikay, Mandaue City.
Genevieve Hope Galag was taken to prison shortly after Beck (real name withheld) was found playing with other children in Barangay Kamagayan, Cebu City last Sunday.
Galag, who resides on Junquera Ext. in Kamagayan, was identified by a witness as the one who took the child, said PO2 Girlee Echaluce of the Women and Children’s Protection Desk of Mandaue City Police Station 4 in Barangay Casuntingan.
Two other suspects, who were arrested earlier, admitted they handed over the boy to a certain Jessa, who turned out to be Galag.
Report
Beck was reported missing last Thursday. He was rescued past 3 p.m. last Sunday. Galag was arrested less than an hour later.
She was turned over to the police station in Casuntingan at 6 p.m.
A picture of the boy went viral on social media after he went missing.
Echaluce said the suspect will be charged today with kidnapping in relation to Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law.
The child’s father, in a text message, said he wants the suspect to spend time in prison for what she did.
“Ug naa pa gani lain kaso ana amo gyud na pun-an (We’ll file any case we can file against her),” he said.
Galag was detained at the Mandaue City Police Station 2 in Barangay Subangdaku.
Drug addict
In a Facebook post, Beck’s aunt said Galag was a drug addict who wanted “to call the child her own.”
“This woman, upon realizing that the little boy didn’t know his way home, took advantage of the situation and abducted (him) on July 2. She didn’t want to turn him over to the police or to us because she wanted to call (the boy) her own and so she took her mighty time making everyone believe she was the mother,” the post read.
She said Beck may have gotten out of the house at dawn on July 2.
Dirty
The boy was dirty and had no pants and was barefoot when he was found in a vacant space in Kamagayan, his aunt said. She added that Beck, who had several mosquito bites, may have slept on the sidewalk for three nights.
Echaluce said she will suggest to the parents that the boy undergo a psychological evaluation.