BU student fakes own kidnapping

ALBAY—A student of Bicol University faked her own kidnapping for fear that her parents would discover that she earned low grades during the previous school year.The student, Diosa Balderama y Bertumen, is 18 years old and a resident of Brgy. Calayukay, Sto. Domingo, Albay.According to her mother, Balderama did not go home on June 2. Thus, at around 9 PM, she reported the incident to the police.Balderama turned up the next day, at around 1:45 PM, at Barangay Lamba, Legazpi City.She told barangay health workers in said area that she had been kidnapped. According to her account, she was forcibly taken by three unidentified suspects on board a blue and green car with an unknown plate number on June 2, between 1 to 2 PM.She added that she was transferred from the passenger seat of said vehicle to its compartment while they were in the vicinity of Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School.Upon hearing her story, the health workers called Sto. Domingo Municipal Police Station, which alerted the Daraga Municipal Police Station that the missing student had been found.Suspicions arose, however, when PO2 Mary Rizza Abion, WCPD Investigator of Legazpi CPS interviewed the victim. Abion discovered that Balderama’s statement on the time of the kidnapping contradicted the time that she texted her relatives.Meanwhile, during the investigation, bystanders around Marcial O. Rañola Memorial School claimed that they did not notice any untoward incident on the date of the alleged kidnapping.They further averred that if a victim were to be forcibly put in the compartment of a vehicle, they would definitely be aware of it.The student finally confessed to PO3 Ma. Coritha Patanao, WCPD Investigator, that she made up the story of the kidnapping.She revealed that she just roamed around the premises of Embarcadero de Legazpi, and went bar-hopping and gallivanting along the boulevard of Barangay Puro, Legazpi City when she went missing.She disclosed that she fabricated the story so that she could tell her parents that the tuition money that she was given was taken by the suspects.In fact, she said, she had decided not to use the money to pay for her tuition because she was afraid to get her low grades from last school year.A student receives the grades from the previous year upon payment of the tuition fees on enrolment, the investigators explained.The PNP has declared the case closed.—BICOLSTANDARD.COM