Missing girl in Negros Oriental reunited with family after 12 years

DUMAGUETE CITY — Thanks to a Facebook post, a girl from Sibulan town, Negros Oriental was reunited with her family after she went missing for at least 12 years.

Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Negros Oriental special investigator Jess Cañete said they managed to rescue the girl from her live-in partner in Paniqui town in the province of Tarlac in Central Luzon. She was only reunited with her family last week.

Because the girl was allegedly a victim of sexual and physical abuse, CHR withheld her identity and gave her the alias “Jessica.” She was only 12 when she went missing; she is now 24 years old.

Jessica was rescued with the help of Atty. Jasmine Navarro-Regino, the CHR director for Region III. The victim’s live-in partner reportedly threatened to take her away from authorities, but police threatened to arrest him for human trafficking as Jessica was a missing girl who was picked up at Luneta Park in Manila in 2006.

The facts of Jessica’s disappearance only emerged last week, after she and her mother “Cerila” were interviewed by Cañete.

“It was a selfie that Jessica randomly posted on Facebook which became instrumental in finding her,” Cañete said, adding that it was her younger sister who recognized her online.

Cerila then sought help to find her daughter from a local radio station. The station then in turn sought Cañete’s help.

According to Cerila, she and Jessica went to Manila in 2006 as she needed to undergo an operation there. They temporarily stayed with Jessica’s half-brother, who was already living there at the time.

Following an argument, Jessica left her brother’s house and found herself roaming the streets of Manila. Cañete said she became a street child who wandered around Luneta Park, noting that Jessica’s memory of the events surrounding her disappearance were quite sketchy.

Jessica was eventually rescued by a Manila policeman and took her in their home. But when the policeman died sometime later, she was reportedly maltreated and physically abused by the police officer’s widow.

She then managed to escape and returned to wandering around Luneta Park. Jessica had a short stint at a nearby beer house, where she went out with male customers who paid her very little for her company.

Jessica then narrated how a security guard, who later became her partner, took her back to his hometown in Paniqui, Tarlac, and there they lived together for up to eight years.

Cañete noted that Cerila traveled by land all the way to Tarlac to personally her daughter get rescued. She managed to get funding for her travel through financial help of concerned citizens, including public officials.

Results of the CHR investigation showed that Jessica was sexually abused and physically maltreated the entire time she went missing for 12 years. She now lives with her family again in San Antonio, Sibulan. — BAP, GMA News