THE Commission on Human Rights on Monday raised the alarm over mounting sales of babies on different social media apps for as low as P90,000.
CHR Commissioner Będa Enpres said at least 16 suspects have been arrested for selling babies online, with one conviction. The youngest baby to be sold online was only six days old, he said.
Enpres warned that babies sold online could fall into child pornography.
“It has become quite rampant nowadays probably on account of new technology using platforms on social media apps to conduct their nefarious trade,” Enpres said in a broadcast interview.
Online sale of the babies is usually done through private Facebook accounts, he said.
Police investigation indicated that the newborns were being peddled by relatives because of the biological parents’ extreme poverty.
Enpres said the sale of the babies is done in the guise of adoption as some parents hope that their children will be given a better life by the adoptive parents.
He underscored that those who wanted to adopt children must do so through legal process.
Babies sold online are then registered by the new parents via late registration.
The CHR warned that those caught selling babies face charges of child abuse and human trafficking.
Authorities earlier rescued last July 3 in Pasay City a one-month-old baby sold for P90,000 through the Facebook.
