The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has appealed to the media to stop reporting on the case of a mother, who left her newly born baby in airline trash bin two Sundays ago, for at least a month. The baby boy, christened George Francis by airport personnel, was found by flight attendants of Gulf Air when the plane landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Aiport on Sept. 12. The attendants discovered the baby in a trash bin after they found a trail of blood from a passenger seat to the lavatory. DSWD Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman told journalist not to interpret her appeal for a one-month media reprieve as a news blackout. “I prefer not to call it a news blackout,” Soliman said on ANC's “The World Tonight” Friday. Soliman said the DSWD was merely asking “for space” to allow the distraught mother to recover and share her story with authorities. The militant group Migrante-Middle East has appealed to the Filipinos not to condemn the mother but to sympathize with her instead because she could have been distressed. “We are encouraging those who will talk with her as caregivers and psychologists handling the case,” Soliman said. “It is good that trust and confidence is built as she tries to tell her story. Having too many people deal with her now would confuse her and just stress her out. She is not ready to tell everything at this stage.” Soliman assures the public they will release the result of her agency's investigations, including the DNA test and counselling, in a month's time. “The appeal that I'm making is not to make a telenovela out of this. Give us a month to work on it with all the parties concerned, to establish the facts and to look at the legal remedies of the case and what we need to do to help (the mother), the baby and the family involved,” Soliman said. Meantime, Soliman said they are also identifying a point person who will officially address questions on the matter. “We'd like to ask that only one person to be given the authority to speak even if there are two or three agencies working on it,” she said. “As soon as we reach an agreement on who will speak, that person will be the one interviewed about the case.” Soliman said she was not discouraging other agencies, including the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), from doing their jobs. “We are not going to discourage people from doing what they have to do as agencies in-charge and responsible. We are discouraging the announcement which might be premature and speculative. We have to talk and get the story completely from the woman,” she said. Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla said the mother had told her that she was abused by her employer in Qatar and was forced to go back to the Philippines. The boy was christened George Francis after the Gulf Air flight code GF154 that brought her mother to Manila.
