A 31-year-old Filipina woman bound for Georgia as a gestational surrogate was stopped at Ninoy Aquino International Airport before she could board her flight, in what the Bureau of Immigration is calling a trafficking operation disguised as overseas employment.
The interception took place at NAIA Terminal 1 on March 30, when I-PROBES officers — the BI’s border enforcement unit — flagged inconsistencies in the woman’s travel documents and itinerary. She had presented herself as a returning domestic helper heading to Hong Kong, but a closer look at her bookings revealed a multi-leg route continuing from Hong Kong to Beijing, and finally to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Among the documents she carried was a letter from a surrogacy facility in Georgia confirming she was scheduled to undergo advanced in vitro fertilization procedures — a detail that directly contradicted her stated purpose of travel.
Under questioning, the woman disclosed she had been contacted through Facebook Messenger by a female recruiter who offered her P490,000 upon completing a surrogate pregnancy. The BI said traffickers are increasingly packaging illegal surrogacy arrangements as work opportunities to target Filipinos in financial need.
The woman has since been turned over to the appropriate authorities for protection and case processing. The BI said an investigation is ongoing to trace and prosecute those responsible for the alleged operation.
