After stirring abduction alarm, ‘missing’ girls found

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Far from being abducted, more so kidnapped, the two girls who were reported missing were confirmed to have run away from home.

Zoe, 18, and Nica, 15 (real names withheld), were “found” early evening of July 18, 2022, five days after they left home.

The two girls’ parents sought the public’s help on Friday after they failed to get home.

The family of four lives in Ledesco Village in La Paz, Iloilo City.

According to their father, they left home around 3:30 p.m. of July 13 to go walking.

The couple got worried after there was heavy downpour but the two haven’t returned.

“Nag-brown-out na pero wala pa sila kapuli,” the father said.

The couple admitted that the two girls might have run away after they were admonished.

They didn’t provide more details about that particular incident.

Colonel Leo Batiles, Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) director, said that the incident came to his attention after he received a text message from Brigadier General Flynn Dongbo, Western Visayas police chief, asking about the real score on the girls’ disappearance.

ICPO’s station commanders were then told to heighten their intelligence monitoring to find the missing girls.

On Monday, Major Jose Val Ladublan, Iloilo City Police Station 3 commander, said they received a call from an informant claiming that the two girls were spotted at Deca Homes in Pavia, Iloilo.

When police were sent to verify the information, it was found out that they were renting a house at the said village.

They immediately went with the police and eventually reunited with their parents.

“We’re just happy that they’re home. We thank the police for their efforts,” their mother JD said.

“Basta palangga ko gid sila,” their father just said on his message to his two daughters.