By Tara Yap
Iloilo City—The Philippine National Police (PNP) clarified that there have been no abductions of students in the city and province of Iloilo.
“There is no truth to reports about a group of men abducting Iloilo schoolchildren, harvesting the latter’s internal organs, and selling these to clients in Metro Manila,” said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
According to Malong, neither the Iloilo City Police Office nor the Iloilo Police Provincial Office have any reports directly from parents or any other sources.
While different messages about the rumor have been circulating in key urban areas in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, there were also messages circulating in Iloilo.
One particular text message even attributed the message to the police station of San Jose, the provincial capital of Antique province. The text purportedly claimed that a white van with plate number VXM-351 and a green van with plate number XMM-507 were used to abduct children and young teenage girls.
But Malong said this message did not come from the PNP and urged the citizenry to stop spreading it.
On the other hand, PRO-6 assured the public that police visibility this holiday season has been beefed up.