00:00Good evening, Luzon Visayas and Mindanao.
00:04In Cambodia, 20 Filipinos were convicted of being surrogate mothers
00:09or people who were brought in for the children of others.
00:1213 of them were convicted.
00:15The authorities are now investigating the identification of the illegal recruiter of the victims.
00:19This is what Mark Salazar is talking about.
00:25The Philippine Embassy in Cambodia confirmed
00:29that 20 Filipinos who were convicted of being surrogate mothers
00:33were rescued by the Cambodian National Police in September.
00:37The Inter-Agency Task Force Against Human Trafficking is now in charge of this case
00:42and the process of sending them home.
00:44Those 20, they are not yet home because 13 of them are still in the hospital.
00:52Because they are surrogate mothers.
00:54That will be their role.
00:55In Cambodia, they are doing different things, they are being trafficked.
01:00We are the only ones who are surrogate mothers.
01:03Actually, that's why.
01:05It's possible, it's happening in other countries too.
01:07Surrogacy is bringing a person from the egg that is not his.
01:11The fertilized egg and sperm are injected in the surrogate mother from another person.
01:17Commercial surrogacy is legal in many countries
01:20to help give birth to couples who have problems in giving birth.
01:25But this is prohibited in Cambodia.
01:28And the bulk of this underground industry in Cambodia
01:32is reaching illegal recruitment agencies in the Philippines.
01:37According to the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia,
01:39the Filipinos were recruited by a person who still knows their identity and nationality.
01:45This recruiter, who possibly has a fake name,
01:49was told to arrange a trip for women
01:51who will travel to a Southeast Asian country
01:54but in the end, they ended up in Cambodia.
01:57The problem, according to our embassy,
02:00is that the agency says,
02:02we might not even know the physical address of this embassy
02:08because they were all contacted via social media.
02:12Via email, Facebook.
02:14Cambodia and the rest of the country are among the most monitored countries
02:18by the Bureau of Immigration when it comes to human trafficking.
02:21The challenge is,
02:23some people go to other countries,
02:25not their final destination,
02:27but they are presented with a ticket to a certain country
02:31but they will go transit to the final destination.
02:36Even the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group
02:39does not have a monitored online recruitment
02:42targeting surrogate mothers.
02:44That is why the DFA's agency
02:47does not allow surrogate mothers to work online.
02:51Please, before you go to our country's neighbors
02:56to work,
02:58you will go through the official process.
03:02Of course, there is a fine, there is a hassle,
03:05but it is important, there is protection for you.
03:07Because usually, what they are told is
03:09there is work in Thailand, in Cambodia,
03:11computer work, tourism work.
03:15That is what they are doing.
03:17For GMA Integrated News,
03:19Mark Salazar,
03:21for 24 Hours.
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