Kidnapping charges were filed yesterday before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office against a woman who took a four-day-old baby boy from the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital on Friday.

Charges were filed against Lilet Letija, 22, of Purok Riverbank, Brgy. Villamonte, Bacolod City, City Police Director Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz said.

Letija was apprehended at her residence Saturday and the baby boy, not a girl as earlier reported, was recovered from her.

Among the evidences presented to the CPO to strengthen the case against her were the testimonies of the child’s parents and of the personnel of the WCCD, who had been handling the case, he said.

It appeared that Letija planned the kidnapping of the baby because she bought infant ware, clothes and toys days before she took the baby, which she presented as her own son to the relatives of her husband, de la Paz added.

Insp. Jovy Cabcaban, chief of the Women and Children Complaints Desk said there is no need for a psychological examination on Letija as she appears to be mentally stable.

Letija will be brought to the Bacolod City women’s correctional since kidnapping is a non-bailable offense, de la Paz said.

Napoleon Silva, the father of the child, told the police earlier that Letija, whom he had met at the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corporation port in 2005, took his baby while his wife was asleep at the hospital at about 2 a.m. Friday last week.

City Police Director Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz yesterday appealed to both government and public hospitals, not only in the city but also in other areas of Negros Occidental, to beef up their security measures following the kidnapping incident.*APN

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