A Philippine woman has acknowledged giving birth to a baby on a flight and then abandoning him in the trash on board the plane, a lawmaker said today.
The baby was found by a security guard at Manila’s airport last Sunday in a trash bag unloaded from a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain. The trash apparently came from the plane’s bathroom.
Rep Lani Mercado said the woman explained to her why she had abandoned the baby. She said the story was heart-wrenching and urged the public not to judge the woman harshly.
“She admitted it’s her child,” Ms. Mercado told reporters after meeting briefly with the woman at Manila’s National Bureau of Investigation headquarters. “Let’s all pray that there will be a happy ending to this story.”
Ms. Mercado, who serves on legislative committees on children and women, refused to provide other details of the meeting, saying government investigators had asked her not to divulge information about the woman. The 30-year-old woman was located yesterday in the remote northern province of Apayao after investigators set out to find the person who sat in a bloodstained seat on the plane.
Authorities brought her to Manila for questioning and testing. They did not release her name.
