READING A STORY about online ‘sale’ of babies almost made me puke because I could never imagine how a parent resorting to selling a baby is almost unimaginable just like an animal eating its own offspring.
I have always encountered babies being dumped in a bin or being left at the doorstep of a stranger and even in churches or social welfare shelters. But being sold online really wasn’t in my radar.
Why in the first place do they ‘make love’ only to abandon or sell the fetus and infant to strangers, who might turn out to be an abuser, a sex offender or in extreme case, a cannibal.
Was the sex act even a transaction– bereft of love– that when the infant was expelled from the mother’s womb, they just threw it, abandoned in some place or dump and worse, sold to a stranger like a tampon, a chocolate bar, a curtain or even a kilo of rice. Has our society gone so low as to accept this as normal?
The story cited financial hardship as a main trigger for this emerging practice and that authorities have flagged a steady rise in cases involving this kind of trade through social media.
And why are social media sites carrying such transactions, which even in the most degenerate society would not find this acceptable and practicable.
The newspaper story said a quick search of Facebook groups shows infants in the Philippines being offered in exchange for cash as low as P8,000 to as much as P130,000.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s National Authority for Child Care (NACC) said these online transactions have prompted a series of entrapment operations since 2024.
DSWD data said seven entrapment operations have been done against online baby selling in the first three months of 2026 alone—nearly matching the eight operations in the whole of 2025 and exceeding the five recorded in 2024.
At least 22 minors, some as young as two months old, have been rescued, while more than 33 individuals—mostly biological mothers—have been arrested.
NACC Assistant Secretary Rowena Macalintal said lack of money is the most frequently cited reason behind these cases.
“Many say they have children who are sick, they need bail money for a spouse, funds for a parent’s hospital treatment, some did not realize they were pregnant, some need capital for a food cart business, money to pay placement fees for overseas work, some were abandoned by their husbands, and others need to pay off debts,” Business Mirror quoted her.
She stressed that financial hardship does not justify the act, to which I completely agree.
“They [babies] are not products, they are not commodities for sale. It is our obligation to protect and care for our children. And if we are going through a crisis, selling our children is not an option,” she said.
“If poverty is the reason, the government has assistance that can help us get through this crisis.”
Online selling of children is strictly prohibited in the Philippines. Both buyers and sellers may face charges of human trafficking or illegal adoption, along with possible violations of the Anti-Child Abuse Law and the Anti-Cybercrime Act.
Illegal adoption alone carries penalties of six to 12 years imprisonment.
The NACC said parents who can no longer care for their child may legally surrender the child to the agency, which will handle the formal adoption process.
The procedure typically takes around nine months, provided prospective adoptive parents complete all required documents and assessments.
The NACC also said it has repeatedly written to Meta seeking a crackdown on Facebook groups facilitating these transactions but has yet to receive a response.