Mom feels remorse after leaving baby in ecobag on street in Biñan

A mother who left her newborn baby near a garbage in Biñan, Laguna has been identified and located by authorities.

According to Maki Pulido's report on "24 Oras", welfare officers said the mother was remorseful for what she had done.

"Umiiyak 'yung nanay, nagsisisi, natatakot. Natatakot po siya kasi ang dami na nagagalit, ganito, ganyan, baka siya kuyugin," said Adora Pascual of the city's Social Welfare Development Office.

While leaving the baby was wrong, Pascual said judgment should not be easily passed on the mother.

"Nagkataon lang po siguro na may mabigat na dahilan kung bakit nangyayari po ang ganitong kaso. Na baka po kailangan din po ng tulong ng nanay," Pascual said.

At 4 a.m. on Wednesday, CCTV footage showed a woman carrying an eco-bag in Barangay Poblacion, Biñan City in Laguna.

Upon arriving at a basketball court in the area, the woman turned left where she placed down the eco-bag and removed her sweater. She was seen leaving the bag.

At 6 a.m. a street sweeper found the newborn baby still attached to its umbilical cord inside the bag.

"Malusog naman siya, maputi, nakakagalaw naman siya, malikot. Kaya lang dito lang siya umikyat, nung nilipat namin siya dito," Daniel Guico, the resident who first encountered the sweeper, said.

The baby is currently confined to a hospital in Biñan.

Though many wished to adopt him, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) followed their process which may end in legal adoption.

For their part, DSWD will help the mother raise the child. The agency, however, recommended its shelters for mothers with no choice.

"In NCR alone, I think we have three shelters for abandoned children, so what we do, we rescue them, and we process them, and conduct intervention program to these abandoned children," DSWD Undersecretary Aimee Torrefranca-Neri said. —Joahna Lei Casilao/NB, GMA News