NBI summons Ica Policarpio over disappearance

MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has called on 17-year-old Patricia “Ica” Policarpio to shed light on her disappearance last week.

An insider told The STAR that Policarpio was invited to the NBI headquarters in Manila today.

The source, an officer who declined to be identified, could not confirm if Policarpio’s parents would allow her to face probers. Her father, Rufino III, is a lawyer.

While her family asked the public to give them privacy, Ica’s disappearance prompted netizens to speculate whether it was a stunt to fulfill a purported online challenge.

Ica went missing outside a coffee shop in Muntinlupa City Thursday night and was found, with the help of netizens, in San Pablo, Laguna on Sunday.

Netizens posted links to a Yahoo! article on a “48-hour challenge” on Facebook.

The report, published in October, said the idea of the game was that a “child vanishes for two days, leaving friends and family panicked, and earns ‘points’ for any Facebook updates, shares, comments or likes regarding their whereabouts. Then, after 48 hours, the child reappears, safe and sound.”

The game was said to be a spinoff of “Game of 72,” which went viral in 2015 and purportedly had children “disappear” for 72 hours.

Some netizens said they hoped her disappearance was not part of the Facebook challenge while others expressed annoyance.

“If this child indeed had joined the ‘48 hour challenge’ thing, how I wish I could let those kids playing those things experience how it is to be kidnapped or such just to scare them and let them know that what they’re doing is unfathomable,” a female Facebook user said.

Another Facebook user said he hopes “that for her sake, she didn’t just deliberately prank the public-at-large who got so worried and concerned for her safety, and actually helped locate her successfully.”

However, the Muntinlupa City police discounted such a possibility, insisting that there were no indications that Policarpio was kidnapped or influenced by someone to run away.

City police chief Senior Superintendent Dante Novicio emphasized that Policarpio’s disappearance could have been caused by a misunderstanding between her and her father, which Rufino admitted in a press conference last Sunday.

Police are not expecting anyone to come forward to shed light on Policarpio’s disappearance, he added. – Charmy Pagulong