The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will give temporary shelter to 13 Filipinas who became surrogate mothers in Cambodia where they were convicted by a local court as surrogacy is illegal in the Southeast Asian country.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian directed the agency’s Field Office-National Capital Region to render all the needed assistance under the Recovery and Reintegration Program for Trafficked Persons (RRPTP) to the 13 surrogate mothers and three of their babies who arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Sunday (December 29).
“The DSWD as the Co-Chairperson of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) treats the 13 surrogate mothers as victims of trafficking and all forms of assistance should be given to them including the provision of transportation and temporary shelter in one of the Department’s center and residential care facilities (CRCFs),” Secretary Gatchalian said.
Atty. Elaine Fallarcuna, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, Attached and Supervised Agencies, who represents the DSWD in the IACAT, reported to the DSWD chief on Friday (December 27) that a CRCF is already being prepared as temporary shelter for the 13 mothers and three babies.
“While the surrogate mothers are in temporary shelter, the DSWD will help them communicate with their families for their reintegration. The respective families of the surrogate mothers will also be assessed for the provision of the necessary services and intervention,” Asst. Secretary Fallarcuna told Secretary Gatchalian.
Asst. Secretary Fallarcuna said two passenger vans from the DSWD’s FO-NCR and the Central Office are ready to transport the trafficked women and their babies to the agency-managed CRCF in Metro Manila.
“Transportation assistance back to their respective cities and provinces will also be provided. Other needed intervention such as counseling services will be provided during assessment by the assigned social worker in the CRCF,” Asst. Secretary Fallarcuna said.
The 13 surrogate mothers with three babies arrived at the NAIA Terminal 1 on Sunday at 4:50 a.m. via Philippine Airlines. They were accompanied by a Cambodian doctor and a Filipino nurse.
The 13 Filipina mothers were among the 24 foreign women caught by Cambodian police in Kandal province in September and charged with attempted cross-border human trafficking.
The Cambodian court had said the 13 Filipinas “have the intention… to have babies to sell to a third person in exchange for money, which is an act of human trafficking”.
The 13 surrogate mothers were sentenced to four years in jail in Cambodia and were later given Royal pardon based on the request by the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh and with the endorsement of the Royal Government of Cambodia.
The Philippine government has taken the position that the Filipinas involved in a surrogacy scheme in Cambodia were trafficking victims. There is no law prohibiting or allowing surrogacy in the Philippines, providing a legal gray area prone to abuse.
