Why Were They Gonna Send Pablo Home?

I just watched this film and, generally, i loved it. It was moving, with good acting and endearing characters. But, I found myself generally confused and infuriated during a portion of it, beginning with the scene in Alfredo's home, after Pablo has been taken to the hospital and is waiting in Alfredo's room, when the female friend of Alfredo's parents is insisting that they have to call Pablo's father and send Pablo home, to avoid a possible kidnapping charge. WTF?

I've never been to Spain and I don't know anything about their child abuse laws, but it's very difficult for me to believe that the adults didn't have the option of calling the police - then, or earlier, before they went to the hospital, when Pablo first showed up at their door beaten and bloody. You don't want to "kidnap" or "hide" a minor child from his parents, but you don't have to return an obviously abused kid to the parent who is abusing him. You call the police, report the abuse, let them investigate and get permission to keep Pablo in the meantime. Perhaps the police would have made him stay with a foster parent instead - but its very unlikely they would've made him go home. Especially if his mom corroborated his story, which I think she would have after that horrifying episode. And regardless, letting Pablo sleep at Alfredo's that night and deal with things in the morning seemed reasonable to me. A promise is a promise.

I found myself yelling at the screen (luckily I watched the movie alone) during this segment of the film. The whole idea of Alfredo, his dad (Jose?), their female friend (who I guess we're supposed to assume has some kind of credentials or experience for advising people on how to handle suspected child abuse?) and Pablo's dad, riding around looking for Pablo so he can go home and have the rest of the *beep* beaten out of him - its crazy. And then Alfredo's dad slaps Alfredo for not telling Pablo's whereabouts? Incredible.

I'm gonna stop rambling, but I hope others join me in this conversation. To clarify, I don't mean this as a criticism of the film, itself - I love that it was complex and thought provoking. I'm just really interested in finding out if the constrained choices that were presented to Jose are actual reality, based on the law and/or culture of Spain, or if he really could have and should have simply called the police.