Fell

A 31-year-old Filipina was denied boarding on a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Hong Kong on March 30, 2026, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. She claimed she was traveling as a returning overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and would be employed as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. Immigration officers from the Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES), however, found that after her transit in Hong Kong, the victim was scheduled to travel onward to Beijing, China, and subsequently to Tbilisi, Georgia, where she was to be engaged as a gestational surrogate mother. The Filipina later admitted that a female recruiter contacted her via Facebook Messenger and offered a final payment of Php 490,000 after childbirth. Consistent with existing anti-trafficking measures, the BI referred the victim to IACAT for appropriate intervention and case development. BI also noted that among the travel documents submitted by the victim was a letter from a Georgian-German surrogacy facility, where she was scheduled to undergo advanced use of in vitro fertilization (IVF). BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado stated that traffickers are again resorting to illegal surrogacy schemes to lure and exploit victims. "Our officers manning the counters are strongly committed to intercepting suspicious departures linked to trafficking schemes," said Viado. “We remain in close coordination with IACAT and other partner agencies to protect Filipinos and ensure that traffickers are held accountable,” he added. | via Rodolfo Santos