Sweeper finds baby boy on Church fence

 April 15, 2012-Fifteen minutes past eleven in the morning, Ylagan Street was almost empty save for a street sweeper, a child, and a small package wrapped in sack cloth.

St. Charles Borromeo Cathedral (Photo from Negros Recollect Churches)

                Editha Baldomar, married, 43, clearly remembered that a 12-year old girl pointed to her that a cloth with a baby was hung on the cyclone fence of the St. Charles Borromeo Cathedral premises. Baldomar did not quite believe the child and said that it could have been a few kilos of rice but the latter insisted that in the package were minute movements.

                The street sweeper, a mother of four, herself, approached the package to find that indeed a baby boy was wriggling inside the hanging cloth. She immediately took the cloth off the hook and went to the San Carlos City Police Office (SCCPO) to file a police blotter. The report was then turned over to the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) Women and Children's Center just across the headquarters.

                The girl who told Baldomar to check the package claimed to have seen a young woman in yellow dress put the cloth up on the fence. "Batan-on pa [ang baye]. Sya ra usa, gadala-dala ug lampin."

                CSWDO initially commissioned the street sweeper to take care of the baby boy, who was not yet named, while reports about him are being finalized. A CSWDO social worker told NRWP that they suspect that the baby boy was born in a hospital or birthing clinic since his navel was tidily clipped. However, sources at the San Carlos City Hospital confirmed that the clip is not like the ones they are using for newborns. Aside from this, there is no more clue as to his parentage or origin.

                Baldomar estimates that when she found the baby, he must have been less than a week old. Dr. Romeo Aggraviador, Jr. checked the baby and declared that he is in good condition except for his yellowing skin which is now being treated with early morning sun therapy.

                As the baby's skin now starts to turn into a healthy pink and he sucks from a bottle of formula milk that the CSWDO supplies, Baldomar sends her message to the foundling's parents.

                "Sa ginikanan, kung kinsa man gani, nganong nakaako man ka nga ibutang nimo [ang bata] didto sa simbahan? Wala pa ka sakiti?"

                The finder would have been willing to adopt the child as her own believing that God has sent her to save him if her husband has a stable job. But, Estanislao Baldomar, 47, who lives with his wife in Katagalogan, a settlement along Ylagan Street, only gets to work as a carpenter sporadically.

                 While several couples have already expressed willingness to adopt the baby boy, it is still a long way before he could be put up for adoption since CSWDO still has to exhaust all means to look for any one of his parents and have the child declared as 'abandoned' by the Court. CSWDO added that help from private individuals is welcome except for cash donations.

                CSWDO is now arranging for the child to be taken under the care of an institution for abandoned children in Bacolod City.