Get ready to feel the creeps.
Yesterday, police found a 7-month old fetus in a house in Rizal, a province north of Manila.
According to the region’s police chief, Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar, police inspected 37-year-old randy Picardal’s house after multiple reports of illegal gun possession.
While they did find a .38 caliber gun loaded with six bullets and an improvised firearm among other gun paraphernalia, the police discovered something much more disturbing: a plastic container with a fetus inside, two sacks of bloodied adult diapers, forceps, and the ironically named makabuhay (pro-life) plant, believed to cause abortions.
Picardal, who claimed to be a faith healer and has latin verses tattooed on his body, said he used the fetus to treat sick people remotely.
“That’s used for good,” he said in Filipino. “For example, when you heal someone from far away, say their name, say it to the fetus.”
According to Picardal, he bought the fetus from his sister in Samar.
To add to the already hair-raising story, police also found photos of Picardal’s “patients,” all with crosses drawn on their foreheads.
Others living in the area told ABS-CBN News that a lot of women, some even school-aged, would visit Picardal’s house.
In a separate incident last night, a 13-year-old who was crab fishing in the Iloilo River in Visayas island found a 6-month old fetus inside a plastic bag that got caught in the net.
Abortion is illegal in the Philippines, but hundreds of thousands of women, often out of desperation, still choose to have them done in unregulated “clinics.”
According to a report by The Guardian, about 610,000 abortions are done in the Philippines every year, with three women dying every day from post-abortion complications.
Many women, especially those in provincial areas, are not educated on reproductive health.
The Philippines’ Reproductive Health law was enacted in 2012, after much protest from the Catholic church and conservative sectors.
The law guarantees universal access to contraception and sexual education but has yet to be fully implemented. Talking about sex and using contraception are also still considered taboo in many parts of the country.
The police will charge Picardal for illegal possession of firearms and will investigate the alleged abortion services.
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