A FILIPINO WOMAN admitted to authorities that she gave birth in the bathroom of an airplane and then abandoned her newborn baby in a bin.
The 30-year-old woman was tracked down Wednesday in a remote northern province and brought to Manila for questioning.
During a reportedly emotional interview on Thursday, she told a lawmaker that she had been working as a maid in Qatar when she was raped by her employer.
She said that when her employer’s wife found out, she forced her to return to the Philippines.
The woman, who is reportedly married with two children, said that she had left the Philippines in June 2009 to work in Qatar for three years. She said she did not know how to explain to her family why she was returning prematurely.
The woman was tracked down after investigators checked the identity of the registered passenger sitting on a bloodstained seat on the Gulf Airway plane, travelling from Bahrain to the Philippines.
The woman’s name has not been released.
DNA tests are now being carried out to confirm that she is the mother of the child, however it could take up to a month for results to be returned.
Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, who currently has custody of the baby, said: ”We want to be very sure that we won’t ascribe this act to the wrong person.”
The mother could face criminal charges for abandoning her child, and the baby could be put up for adoption.
The newborn was found in a bin that had been unloaded from a commercial flight coming in the Philippines from Bahrain on Sunday. The baby had already turned blue and would have died within minutes if he had not been found when he was.
The baby, temporarily named George Francis after Gulf Air’s flight code GF, is reportedly in good health. However, he underwent an X-ray because of two bumps found on his head, welfare officer Thelsa Biolena said to reporters. The results have not yet been released.
Many Filipinos become migrant workers in the Middle East to escape crushing poverty at home. Recently, reports of abuse committed by employers have come to light.
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