Jollibee is the home of Filipino comfort food like the fried Chickenjoy and Filipino-style spaghetti, but who knew their staff can also give comfort?
In a now-viral Facebook post by Jesica Tan Verano yesterday, the Jollibee crew member recounted how she and her co-workers looked after a newborn who was abandoned near the Jollibee branch they work at in Cavite.
“Whoever abandoned this baby near the Jollibee store in Imus Pag-asa, only God can judge you now,” Verano wrote in her caption.
“Baby is so cute. I’m crying because he was left by good for nothing parents,” she continued, adding the hashtags #BabyJollibee and #BabyIsAlwaysABlessing.
https://www.facebook.com/jesica.verano/posts/2018597238160227
In the photos Verano posted, several Jollibee staff can be seen caring for the baby. They carried him, changed his diapers, and one even breastfed him.
In an interview with Coconuts Manila, Verano said that they named the infant Baby Hope because the Jollibee branch is located in Barangay (Village) Pag-asa, a Filpino word that translates to “hope.”
She said that the baby was brought to the Jollibee branch by a traffic enforcer at around 11:30am yesterday after it was found in an empty lot beside the fast-food joint.
“He looked like a newborn because his navel [wound] was still fresh and he still had some blood on his head. It seemed like the baby was hurriedly cleaned and then abandoned,” she told ABS-CBN News in Filipino.
Abandoned babies are not uncommon in the Philippines, where abortion is illegal and frowned upon.
In May, a tricycle driver found a baby boy inside a plastic bag in a dumpsite in Cebu. The baby was brought to a hospital where doctors confirmed that he was alive and well despite the situation he was found in.
According to Verano’s Facebook post, the Department of Social Welfare and Development now has custody of the baby abandoned in Jollibee.
As of this article’s posting, her Facebook post had close to 30,000 shares, more than 26,000 reactions, and close to 200 comments.
