Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Boying Remulla assured that justice will be served against two individuals who were charged before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) for marketing online a newborn baby.
This as the Department of Justice (DOJ) Task Force on Women and Children and Against Trafficking in Persons (TFWCATIP), headed by Deputy State Prosecutor Olivia I. Laroza-Torevillas and Task Force member/inquest prosecutor Assistant State Prosecutor Claire Eufracia P. Pagayanan, filed qualified trafficking and child exploitation charges against Arjay Escalona Malabanan and Ma. Chariza Rivera Dizon.
The case stemmed from the complaint filed by the Philippine National Police-Women and Children Protection Center (PNP-WCPC) before the DOJ against Malabanan and Dizon.
On 12 February 2024, the PNP-WCPC acted upon the information reported by the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) regarding a “black market” proliferating in some social media groups/communities, where aspiring parents seek to illegally adopt children.
Several days later, the PNP-WCPC, using a policewoman who pretended to be a buyer of a baby, was able to lock-in a transaction with a certain “Kuy’s Jay” who offered to sell them a newborn child for P90,000.00.
The police agent pretending to be an aspiring parent and “Kuy’s Jay” agreed to meet at Concepcion Church in Dasmariñas City, Cavite where the deal was sealed.
Using marked money, authorities were able to receive the baby from Kuy’s Jay who was later identified as accused Malabanan and arrested right there and then the baby’s mother co-accused Dizon.
“Evidence adduced sufficiently established the crime of qualified trafficking: respondents facilitated the adoption of the newborn baby; facilitation of the adoption was for a consideration of ninety thousand pesos (P90,000.00); purpose was to facilitate illegal adoption; the trafficked victim is a child; and the act of trafficking was committed by or through the use of ICT or any computer system, the transaction having been done through Facebook messenger platform,” the Resolution stated.
“The act of respondents in selling the newborn child is an act of exploitation,” it added.
“Children are the most precious treasures of society meant to be fully protected by law, they are the best investments of today for a better tomorrow. We will never allow anyone to exploit them in any way,” Secretary Remulla said.
“Let us be the defenders of these vulnerable sector and innocents who desperately need us,” added Remulla.
The prosecutors recommended no bail for the qualified trafficking charges and a bail of Eighty Thousand Pesos (P80,000.00) for the Child Exploitation charges.
