MANILA -- Police on Wednesday claimed that a crocodile which allegedly escaped from the Pasig Rainforest Park during the height of tropical storm “Ondoy” has been recaptured.

“Actually, yung buwaya po ay nanggaling sa rainforest site sa Pasig na nasa tabi ng floodway…So iyong buwaya na sinasabing nakawala ay isa sa mga alaga sa loob ng gubat,” Police Superintendent Torrecampo of the Cainta Police said in an interview over ANC.

“It was immediately recaptured pagkalabas niya. Wala pong buwaya on the loose,” he added.

Torrecampo explained that the crocodile escaped when the floodwaters overflowed from the reptile’s cage during the height of the typhoon.

“Noong nakita ng mga caretakers nung rainforest [park] na may nakawala, nare-capture na kaagad nila ang buwaya na ito,” he said.

However, it is not clear if Torrecampo is referring to the same crocodile which was spotted by three people in Cainta Greenpark Village last Monday.

“As far as Cainta Police is concerned, isa lang ang nakawala, at it was immediately recaptured,” he said.

Seen in Cainta Greenpark

Sometime after midnight on Monday, September 28, Michael Lambert, Kenneth Taneo and Marie Tan reportedly spotted a crocodile at the corner of Dollar and Schilling streets in Cainta Greenpark Village.

Lambert took a picture of the animal and posted the photograph on his Facebook account.

“I had to back up and take this from a higher point. A few seconds earlier, this was right in front of us!” Lambert said in his Facebook post. “I adjusted the exposure and brightness of this photo.”

“Apparently, a lot of these creatures had escaped from the Pasig Rainforest Park during the typhoon. And one of them made it into the flooded streets of this private village in Cainta,” Lambert said in his Facebook post.

But Pasig City Mayor Robert Eusebio earlier denied that a crocodile from the forest park escaped.

Lambert later conceded that the animal may have come from anywhere. “We do not know where it came from. Might have come from the zoo or swamps around the area.”

Lambert’s encounter with the crocodile is not the only one involving wildlife that victims reported in the aftermath of the disaster wrought by tropical storm Ondoy.

At the height of the floods, Metro residents also reported of snakes suddenly appearing in their houses. -- Gemma Bagayaua Mendoza, abs-cbnNEWS.com/ Newsbreak with Mark Telan, abs-cbnNEWS.com