A Philippine woman who gave birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then left him in the rubbish bin on the plane said she was raped by her employer, a politician who has spoken to the woman said today.The baby was found by a security guard at Manila's airport last Sunday in a bag of rubbish unloaded from a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain.
The bag apparently came from a toilet on the Gulf Air jet which flew to the Philippines from Saudi Arabia.
Lani Mercado, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said she met the mother, who told her that she had been raped by her employer while working as a maid in Qatar.
She became pregnant and her employer's wife forced her to return home.
Ms Mercado said the woman managed to hide her pregnancy and board a flight.
'She had labour pains in the plane. Then she gave birth.'
She said the woman, who is married and has two children, told her she abandoned the baby because she was afraid of what her family would say.
Ms Mercado, who serves on legislative committees on children and women, said she met the woman at Manila's National Bureau of Investigation headquarters to try to help her.
The woman has been shown a picture of the child and is said to be 'very eager to see her baby'.
The woman left in June last year to work in Qatar for three years, and her family was surprised when she suddenly returned home, said police spokesman.
The 6lb 9oz baby - still attached to the placenta - was found wrapped in tissue paper.
Airport officials said the baby, already bluish in colour, may have died within a few minutes had he not been found.
The baby, temporarily named George Francis after Gulf Air's flight code GF, is now fine but underwent an X-ray because of two bumps on his head. The results have not yet been released.
The 30-year-old woman was located Wednesday after investigators set out to find the person who sat in a bloodstained seat on the plane.
Authorities brought her to Manila for questioning and testing.
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