Case of 11-year-old ‘pan de sal’ vendor still a robbery–police
MANILA, Philippines–As far as the police and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are concerned, the inconsistencies in the statements of an 11-year-old pan de sal vendor who claimed he lost his earnings to a robber may be due to trauma.
Chief Insp. Fernando Reyes, Caloocan police substation 5 commander, said on Monday that they would continue to treat the case as a robbery.
The boy, he added, may still be traumatized by his experience which would account for the changes in his testimony.
On the DSWD’s part, Metro Manila Regional Director Alice Bonoan said that the young vendor’s statements were consistent with his claim that he lost his earnings of P200 from selling pan de sal to a knife-wielding robber in Deparo, Caloocan City, on Oct. 9.
According to her, they would continue to provide him with counseling to help him recover from his traumatic experience.
Earlier, there were reports that the police were beginning to doubt the boy’s story due to inconsistencies in his statements.
The young vendor drew the sympathy of netizens after a video showing him shaking and crying in fear after the alleged robbery went viral.
That same day, the boy identified a man in a blue undershirt as the thief through the footage captured by a closed-circuit television camera.
However, Reyes noted that when the same footage was shown to the young vendor the following day, he said that the man in blue was not the robber.
According to the police official, two members of the city’s Department of Public Safety and Traffic Management (DPSTM) unit who were approached by the boy for help a few minutes after the supposed robbery took place also said they did not see a man fleeing from the scene.
“The boy reported the incident to the two [DPSTM members] at 8:14 a.m. He said his earnings were taken by a man and, when they asked him where the man had gone, the boy pointed to [a street]. But the two did not see anything,” Reyes explained.
The police official also denied earlier reports that the robber had been arrested, saying that a 15-year-old boy whom they had invited for questioning was released after the young vendor said that he was not the thief.
At the same time, Reyes clarified that contrary to news reports, this was the first time that the boy had complained that he was robbed. Some media outlets had reported that this was the third instance that the boy had claimed he lost his earnings to a thief.
There was also no evidence that the young vendor was being maltreated by his mother, Reyes added following news reports that the boy had concocted the story because he was afraid his mother would beat him up if he failed to sell the pan de sal.
“The investigation is still ongoing,” Reyes said.
Bonoan, meanwhile, told the Inquirer that the DSWD would continue to follow up the boy’s case especially since his family was a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
The DSWD noted that he should not be selling bread in the first place. Instead, he should be focused on his studies since his family is a beneficiary of the conditional cash transfer program.
The mother, the breadwinner of the family, works as a laundry woman while the family gets a monthly stipend of P500 for her children’s health needs. The boy gets an additional P300 for his educational expenses.
In exchange, she must send him to the health center for regular checkups and ensure that he attends school regularly, the DSWD added.
“We will counsel the mother that the boy should not be selling pan de sal. He should not be working. But this will not be a reason to remove them from the program,” Bonoan said.
Earlier, the DSWD extended a P10,000 livelihood assistance to the boy’s family after the robbery was reported. They also received help from the Caloocan City government with the young vendor getting a bike.–With a report from Julie M. Aurelio
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