Proposal to create Anti-Child Trafficking Office gets Duterte review

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte would study the possible creation of an Anti-Child Trafficking Office to address child trafficking in the Philippines, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Monica Prieto Teodoro, Special Envoy of the President to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), proposed during the 41st Cabinet meeting in Malacañang the crafting of an executive order creating the task force.

Panelo said the proposal was “a response to many incidents of illegal trafficking of children.”

On Wednesday, authorities took into custody an American woman at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) as authorities found a baby boy inside her luggage.

READ: American woman held at Naia as authorities found baby in luggage

The Bureau of Immigration said Jennifer Talbot, 43, hid the baby in an “oversized belt bag” and “was not declared nor presented to the immigration inspector during departure formalities.”  /muf