FDH in hot water for denying own baby

SHE was her baby after all.

While her child was crying outside the courtroom, domestic worker Mary Ann E. Pineda was inside answering charges that she had misled the police.

Pineda, who was employed in Baguio Villa in Pok Fu Lam, pleaded guilty on September 9 to the charge of knowingly misleading a police officer after she initially denied that she was the mother of a baby that she brought to an NGO.

“You are convicted based on your own guilty plea,” said Eastern Magistrates Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai.

The judge sentenced her to two weeks imprisonment but suspended it for one year.

This means that if Pineda does not commit a crime in the next 12 months, she will not have to serve the jail sentence.

The case began after Pineda on February 26 went to Mother’s Choice—an NGO that helps unwed mothers and children without families—and brought with her a newly-born baby girl.

Pineda claimed that her friend gave birth to the baby, who was wrapped in a t-shirt.

The baby was brought to Queen Mary Hospital for a medical check-up and doctors there certified that it was healthy.

The police later arrived and, when a policewoman interviewed Pineda, she insisted that it was her friend who was the baby’s mother.

Her friend allegedly asked for Pineda’s help but when the police looked for that person, in Western District, they could not find her.

It was only later that day that Pineda confessed that she was the mother of the child. She said she gave birth the day before in her employer’s bedroom but did not tell her employer out of fear that she would lose her job.

Pineda, who studied to become a nurse, admitted that she herself cut the umbilical cord. She also has two children, aged 10 and five years old, in the Philippines.

The police later checked Pineda’s room and discovered some “bloodied belongings” there. A DNA test also confirmed that she was the mother of the child.

“This is an unfortunate case born of fear and confusion. Her thoughts on that day were muddled. She’s extremely remorseful,” said Pineda’s lawyer.

He added that, since she had already been terminated by her employer, Pineda intends to return to the Philippines as soon as she receives her child’s birth certificate.