DSWD swamped with offers to adopt airplane baby

MANILA, Philippines - Many Filipino families have expressed interest in adopting George Francis, the newborn found in the lavatory bin of a Gulf Air plane that landed in Manila last Sunday, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said yesterday.                  

But DSWD-National Capital Region Director Thelsa Biolena said the baby should first be declared legally available for adoption. At the moment, the DSWD is still looking for the baby’s mother.                

Biolena said she received three e-mails from three Filipinos who expressed intention of adopting George Francis.

She said Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman also received phone calls from individuals who would like to take custody of the baby.    

“For now he’s (George Francis) not yet legally available for adoption… we’ll try to look for his parents and wait for the results of police investigations and make public announcements through the media,” Biolena said in an interview with radio dzBB.         

Manila International Airport Authority general manager Jose Angel Honrado said they have started searching for a passenger who arrived last Sunday on board Gulf Air flight 154. The passenger was seated in 40D on which blood stains were found. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed last year Republic Act 9523 or “An Act Requiring the Certification of the DSWD to Declare a Child Legally Available for Adoption.”         

The law hastens the adoption process of abandoned or neglected children, including infants, by transferring the authority to declare the legal availability for adoption to the DSWD from the courts.                                                                   

The law also shortens the time period for declaring a child abandoned from six months to three.                                       

Soliman said George Francis, named after Gulf Air’s flight code GF, is doing well, watched over by nurses.

“He is doing well. He takes a lot of milk, but he is being observed because there was a bump found on his head. But as far as the report of his check up goes, his condition is good,” Soliman said.

She told The Associated Press that they have identified the woman who occupied the blood-stained seat but they are still verifying if she is the baby’s mother.

Gulf Air spokeswoman Katherine Kaczynska said no one in the plane reported anything unusual during the flight. The baby was discovered in the trash bin of the airplane lavatory.                      

Doctors who attended to the baby said he looked Filipino, fueling speculations that the boy’s mother could be a domestic worker in the Middle East.

Soliman said the baby may be given Bahraini nationality if it is confirmed he was born in the Gulf Air plane. Children born during a flight are entitled to citizenship of the country where the plane is registered. – With AP