THE Philipine National Bureau of Investigation has charged an American woman with human trafficking after she was caught attempting to fly a 6-day-old baby out of the country without proper documentation, officials said on Thursday, September 5.
The woman in question is 43-year-old Jennifer Erin Talbot, who also faces child abuse and kidnapping with serious illegal detention complaints for hiding the baby in an oversized sling bag before boarding her Delta Airlines flight at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Wednesday, September 4.
“The child’s situation must have been very difficult during the time that he was put inside that bag,” NBI spokesperson Auralyn Pascual noted on Thursday.
According to Manuel Dimaano, chief of the NBI’s International Airport Investigation Division, Talbot was able to pass through the immigration counter without declaring the baby. She was about to board her flight to the United States when the crew of Delta Air Lines intercepted her at the boarding gate of NAIA Terminal 3.
“There really was an intention to conceal and sneak out the baby,” Dimaano said.
He told reporters that Talbot responded that she wanted to give the baby “a name and a church blessing.”
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) managed to make contact with a woman named Maricris Cempron Dulap, who said she wanted to put her baby up for adoption “so she browsed the internet and she stumbled upon Talbot,” authorities said.
The NBI noted that Talbot had a notarized affidavit declaring that she intended to adopt the baby, but it lacked Dulap’s signature.
Talbot, whom Philippine officials initially said was from Ohio, owns a home in a suburb of Salt Lake City, according to property records obtained by the Associated Press.
Dimaano told reporters that Dulap gave her baby to Talbot in Davao City, though investigators are still determining how the baby was brought to Manila because a city clearance is required for infants to be transported by a foreigner.
Both of the baby’s biological parents are also charged for child abuse, however, they are still at large.
