|
TABACO CITY, Albay: The python “baby” finally
returned home, lifeless.
The baby, supposedly the
seven-inch “twin” of a healthy baby girl, had been put inside a
bottle with alcohol by its grandmother Melinda Berzosa of Sangay
town in Camarines Sur province near Albay in the Bicol Region.
Mrs. Berzosa is the mother of
Maricel Berzosa-Bellen, 24, who claimed to have given birth to the
python on February 28 and to its human sister on February 29.
Gil, husband of Maricel, cried
when he saw the dead child-snake.
“Gil and my father-in-law were
very mad at me. He [Gil] even cried and punched our door,” Maricel
told The Manila Times.
The python was brought back to
this city on Friday afternoon after Gil told Maricel and his
mother-in-law that he wanted to see it. Jacqueline, the baby girl,
supposedly became restless and kept on crying when her twin was
separated from her a week ago.
The child-snake, according to
Maricel, fell sick because it had refused to drink milk. But Gil
said it had, hungrily, when he held it a week ago.
After sipping milk, the python
baby, according to Gil, encircled his bare hand and seemed to be
kissing it to show its love for him.
At first, the couple hid the
rather incredible story of their twins for fear of ridicule. But
word eventually spread out until it reached Supt. Jose Capinpin,
this city’s chief of police, who then ordered his men to verify
the story. Capinpin later personally confirmed the twins’ birth
over Bombo Radyo in Legazpi City.
A few who were interviewed by The
Times, including nurses, teachers and a priest, shrugged off the
story.
When the Bellens’ neighbors
began trooping to their house, and gamblers followed offering to buy
the python baby for P50,000, Maricel asked her mother to take the
child-snake to Sangay.
Maricel, mother of four now,
excluding the python baby, told The Times that she was shocked and
frightened when she saw it coming out of her womb. Gil said he took
the python baby and put it inside a bottle a day after his wife gave
birth to the healthy Jacqueline at Ziga Memorial Hospital.
Maricel even told her attending
physician that she had given birth to a snake. She is from Sangay
and Gil, from Bacacay, Albay.
She said she had dream twice that
she will deliver twins.
On March 1, while Gil was asleep,
Maricel requested her mother to bring the child-snake to Camarines
Sur without his consent.
Gil recalled that the python baby
was very healthy and even slithered out of the bottle, stopping at
Jacqueline’s side.
Despite his wife’s protest and
fear, Gil told The Times that he would have taken care of their
child-snake.
The couple, who live in a slum in
this city, run a goto (porridge made from pig’s innards and pork
strips) business. They employ three workers and earn at least P1,000
net a day.
Maricel said she wants to bury
the python baby but Gil told The Times that he will keep it inside
their house.
The couple said Jacqueline turned
“blue” when her twin arrived lifeless here.
--Rhaydz B. Barcia
|
